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NELSON'S 
Biographical Cyclopedia 



OF 



NEW JERSEY 




PUBLISHED UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 

WILLIAM NELSON 

Editor New Jersey Archives ; Author of Indians of New Jersey ; 

Corresponding Secretary New Jersey Historical Society 



VOLUME I 



NEW \C)RK 

EASTERN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 

l'M3 



Y 






l-ORKWORD. 



The fiistoric spirit, faithful to the record, the discerning judg- 
ment, unrnfjved l)y prejudice and uncolored by undue enthusiasm, 
are as essential in giving the life of the individual person as in writ- 
ing the history of a people. 'J he world to-day is what the leading 
men of the last generation have made it. From the past has come 
the legacy of the present. Art, science, statesmanship, government, 
as well as advanced industrial and commercial prosperity, are 
accumulations. They constitute an inheritance upon which the pres- 
ent generation has entered, and the advantages secured from so vast 
a l)e(|iieathiiRnt depend entirely u]->(m the lidelity with which is con- 
diKted the study ol the lives of those who have transmitted the 
legacy. 

In every conitruinity there have been found men who were 
leaders in thouglit and action, and whf) have marked the passing 
years with liirge and worthy achievement. They have left definite 
impress in ])ublic, professional, industrial, commercial and other lines 
of endeavr)r that touch the general welfare. They have been 
workers and builders, each in his respective field. They have 
wrought well, ami have left a \alual)le heritage to posterity. The 
lives and deeds of such men in each succeeding generation should 
not be forgotten, nor should specific record be neglected, for the 
same must olfer perpetual lesson and insjiiration. 

Thus, in rendering the history of any people, nation or com- 



munity, there is a scientific historical necessity for genealogy and 
biography, which constitute the foundation of all history. There- 
fore was this memorial record projected, and none can doubt the 
cumulative value of the work. Its province is primarily and intrin- 
sically that of according due recognition to those men who have 
been and are leading and distinguished figures in various avenues 
of endeavor, along which they have specifically honored and digni- 
fied the place of their residence and the nation as a whole. This 
work contains memoirs of those whose characters and achievements 
entitle them to such recognition. Every effort has been made to 
insure accuracy and reliability in every respect. 

Eastern Historic.m. Publishing Society. 



V>i 



GEOlUiE BlUxNTON McCLELLAN 



GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN, distinguished soldier, 
and Governor of New Jersey, was born in Philadelphia, De- 
cember 3, 1826, son of Dr. George and Elizabeth (Brinton) Mc- 
Clellan. 

He matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania with the 
class of 1844, and left at the close of his sophomore year to enter the 
U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in July, 1864, 
second in the class. He was appointed to the Engineer Corps as 
brevet second lieutenant, and served in the war with Mexico, 1846- 
48. He was engaged in opening the road from Matamoras to Tam- 
pico, 1846-47; siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847 ! battle of Cerro 
Gordo, April 17-18; promoted second lieutenant, April 24, engaged 
in skirmish of Amazoque, May 14; battles of Contreras, August 
19-20, and Cherubusco, August 20; constructing batteries against 
Chapultepec, September 9-13 ; assault and capture of City of Mexico, 
September 13-14, 1847. He was at West Point, New York, attached 
to a company of engineers, 1848-50, and in command of troop, 
1850-51. He was brevetted first lieutenant, August 20, 1847, ^°^ 
Contreras and Cherubusco; captain, September 8, 1847, ^or Molino 
del Rey, which brevet he declined, and captain, September 13, 1847, 
for Chapultepec. He was assistant engineer in building Fort Dela- 
ware, 1851-52; engineer of the exploring expedition, Red River, 
Texas, 1852; chief engineer. Department of Texas, 1852, and in 
charge of surveys on the coast of Texas, 1852-53. He was engineer 
in the exploration and survey of the western division of the projected 
Northern Pacific railroad through the Cascade Mountains, 1853-54; 
collected railroad statistics for the War Department, 1854-55; and 
was a member of the military commission sent to the theatre of war 
in Europe, 1855-56, and his official report was published by order of 
Congress, 1857. He devised the McClellan saddle in 1856, which 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



came into general use in the army. He was promoted first lieutenant, 
July I, 1853, and captain in First Cavalry, March 3, 1855, on the 
eve of his departure to Europe, and on his return to the United 
States resigned his commission in the army, January 16, 1857, to 
take position as chief engineer of the Illinois Central railroad, serv- 
ing 1857-58, and was vice-president of the St. Louis and Cincinnati 
railroad, 1860-61. He was appointed major-general of Ohio volun- 
teers, April 23, 1 86 1, and was in command of the Department of 
the Ohio from May 13 to July 15, 1861. He commanded the Fed- 
eral forces in Western Virginia; engaged in the action at Rich 
Mountain, July 11, 1861, and by a forced march surprised Colonel 
John Pegram near Beverly, July 12, i 86 1 , and compelled him to sur- 
render. For his services in Western Virginia he received the thanks 
of Congress, July 12, 1861. He was commissioned major-general, 
U. S. A., May 14, 1861, and was placed in command of the Division 
of the Potomac, with headquarters at Washington, D. C, July 27, 
1 86 1. On August 17, 1 861, he was given command of the Depart- 
ment of the Potomac; on August 20, 1861, of the Army of the 
Potomac, and November i, 1861, was made general-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States. He advanced upon Manassas, Vir- 
ginia, March 6-10, 1862, and transferred the Army of the Potomac 
to the Virginia peninsula, which movement was followed by the 
siege of Yorktown, April 5-May 4, 1862; occupation of Williams- 
burg, May 5-6, 1862; battle of Fair Oaks, May 31-June i, 1862, 
and Seven Days' battle before Richmond, June 26-July 2, 1862. 
He was familiarly known as "Little Mac," and appears to have had 
the full confidence of his officers and men. The Peninsular cam- 
paign was abandoned by order of General Halleck, who had been 
made general-in-chief of the Federal army, McClellan having asked 
to be relieved of all responsibility of the operations outside the Army 
of the Potomac. After General Pope's army was defeated, August 
31 and September i, 1862, President Lincoln went to McClellan's 
house in Washington and instructed him to meet the retreating army, 
take command, and save Washington, and it was under this verbal 



DIOGRAPillCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



order from the President that the Army of the Potomac and the 
Army of Virginia were merged as the Army of the Potomac and pre- 
pared to meet the Confederate army under General Lee in the Mary- 
land campaign, the last campaign of McClellan. He was in com- 
mand of the defences of Washington, September 2-8, 1862, and of 
the new Army of the Potomac from September 8 to November 10, 
1862, and during this time fought the battle of South Mountain, Sep- 
tember 14, 1862; the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862; trans- 
ferred his headquarters to Warrenton, Virginia, where during Octo- 
ber and November he received reinforcements and plac( d the Army 
of the Potomac in a condition to protect the national capital from 
further danger. On November 10, 1862, he received notice from 
the War Department to report at New York City on waiting orders, 
and the command of the Army of the Potomac was transferred to 
General A. E. Burnside. General McClellan visited Boston in the 
winter of 1862-63, where he was presented with a sword, and in 
June, 1864, he delivered the oration at the dedication of the soldiers' 
monument at West Point, New York. He was nominated as a candi- 
date for President by the Democratic National Convention in 
Chicago, August 29, 1864. At the meeting of the Electoral College, 
McClellan and Pendleton received from New Jersey, Kentucky and 
Delaware twenty-one \'otes, to two hundred and tweh'e for Lincoln 
and Johnson. 

He resigned from the army November 8, 1864, visited Europe, 
1865-60, with his family, and on his return took up his residence in 
Orange, New Jersey. He declined the presidency of the University 
of California in 1868, and that of Union College, Schenectady, New 
York, in 1869. He had the supervision of the building of the 
Stevens battery under the terms of the will of Edwin A. Stevens, 
1868-71; was engineer-in-chief of the Department of Docks, New 
York City, 1870-72; planned the bridge erected over the Hudson 
river at Poughkeepsie; was president of the New York Under- 
ground Railroad, of the U. S. Rolling Stock Company, and of the 
Atlantic and Western Railroad, and in March, 1877, was nominated 



ISIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



by Governor Robinson, of New York, Superintendent of Public 
Works in New York State, but the Senate refused to confirm the 
appointment. He was nominated by acclamation by the Democratic 
State Convention of New Jersey for Governor of New Jersey, Sep- 
tember 19, 1877, and was elected, serving 1878-81. He Introduced 
reforms in the State militia, preserved the non-partisan character of 
the judiciary, established schools for industrial education, recom- 
mended needed reforms in the prison-labor system, and left the 
public schools and other institutions of the State in a prosperous con- 
dition. He was a member of the board of managers of the Na- 
tional Home for Disabled Soldiers, 1881-85, and pronounced the 
oration at the dedication of the battlefield of Antietam in 1885, his 
last public service. 

He married Mary Ellen, daughter of General Randolph Barnes 
Marcy, and their son, George Brinton, was a representative in Con- 
gress from New York City. General McClellan translated from the 
French: "Manual of Bayonet Exercises," adopted for use in the 
U. S. Army (1852), and is author of: "Government Reports of 
Pacific Railroad Surveys" (1854) ; "Operations in the Crimea, and 
Organization, Instruction and Equipment of European Armies" 
(1857); "Reports on Organization of the Army of the Potomac 
and its Campaigns in Virginia and Maryland" ( 1864) ; "The Penin- 
sula Campaign," in the "Century," May 5, 1885; and two articles 
in "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," 1887. 

He died in Orange, New Jersey, October 29, 1885. 



\yiLLIAM LIMNGSTON 



WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, the first Governor of New Jersey 
as a State of the Union, and an author of some note, was 
born in Albany, New York, November 30, 1723, son of Philip and 
Catharine (Van Brugh) Livingston. 

He was educated at Yale College, graduating A. B., 1741, A. 
M., 1744. He studied law in the office of James Alexander, and 
was admitted to the bar October 14, 1748. He established the 
"Independent Reflector" in New York in 1752. In 1754 he was a 
commissioner to adjust the boundary between New York and Massa- 
chusetts, and subsequently between New York and New Jersey. He 
and his brother, Philip Livingston, his brother-in-law, William Alex- 
ander, and a few others, established the New York Society Library 
in 1754. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly from Liv- 
ingston Manor, 1759-61. He was an ardent patriot, and published 
articles in the "Weekly Post Boy" denouncing the stamp act. In 
1760 he purchased a farm at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to which 
he removed in 1772. On June 1 1, 1774, he was appointed to repre- 
sent Essex county in a committee of correspondence to select dele- 
gates for election to the first Continental Congress, July 23, 1774, 
and he was a delegate from New Jersey to that body, 1774-76, serv- 
ing on many important committees. He was appointed commander- 
in-chief of the New Jersey militia with the rank of brigadier-general 
in June, 1776. In the latter year he was elected Governor, and 
served until 1791. He was nominated as one of the commissioners 
to superintend the construction of the Federal buildings in 1785, but 
declined to serve, and also declined the post of United States Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary to the Hague, June 23, 1785, owing to his 
advanced age. It was largely due to his spirited effort that the Legis- 
lature of New Jersey passed the act forbidiling the importation of 
slaves, March 2, 1786. In 1787 he was a delegate to the Philadci- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



phia convention that framed the United States Constitution, and he 
signed that instrument September 17, 1787. 

He was a member of the American Philosophical Society', and 
(if the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The honorary 
degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Yale College in 1788. 
He published, in conjunction with William Smith Jr., "A Digest of 
the Laws of New York," 1 691- 1792 (2 vols., 1752-62). He was 
author of: "Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life" 
(1747); "A Review of Military Operations in North America" 
(1757) ; "Observations on Government" (1787). He died at Lib- 
erty Hall, Elizabethtown, New Jersey, July 25, 1790. 

He married, in 1745, Susannah, daughter of Philip French, of 
New Brunswick, and granddaughter of Major Anthony Brockhalls, 
formerly Governor of New York. 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD 



JOSEPH BLOOMFIELD, a soldier of the Revolution, and 
Governor of New Jersey, was born at Woodbridge, New Jer- 
sey, about 1755. He joined the Revolutionary army, and served 
throughout the war, rising to the rank of major. He then resumed 
his study of the law, which had been interrupted by the war, and 
began practice at Burlington, New Jersey. In 1801 he was elected 
Governor of New Jersey, holding the office until 1812. During 
the war of 18 12 he served in the army with distinction, having 
the rank of brigadier-general. In 18 16 he was elected a representa- 
tive to the Fifteenth Congress, serving through the Sixteenth Con- 
gress. 

He died at Burlington, New Jersey, October 3, 1823. 



WILLIAM FATERSON 



WILLIAM PATERSON, a soldier of the Revolution and 
Governor of New Jersey, was a native of the North of 
Ireland, born in 1745. He was eldest son of Richard Paterson, who 
with his wife and son came to Philadelphia in 1747, settled first in 
Trenton, in Princeton in 1750, and in 1779 in Raritan, where he died 
in 1781. 

He prepared for college at a grammar school, and was gradu- 
ated from the College of New Jersey, A. B., 1763, A. M., 1766. 
He read law with Richard Stockton, afterward a Signer of the 
Declaration of Independence, and was admitted to the bar in 1769. 
He was a deputy to the New Jersey Provincial Congress that met 
May II, 1775, ^"'l ^'^s secretary of that body. He was an officer 
of the Somerset battalion of minute-men in 1776, and in June of that 
year was appointed, with John Witherspoon, William Livingston 
and John Mehelm, the committee to arrest and depose the royal 
governor. 

He was the first Attorney-General of New Jersey in 1776; a 
member of the Legislative Council, 1776; a delegate to the Conti- 
nental Congress, 1780-81, and to the Constitutional Convention of 
1787. He was elected United States Senator on the organization of 
the first State Legislature in 1789, and drew the long term. He 
served in the Senate as one of the tellers to count the electoral vote, 
was chairman of the committee on election certificates, and a member 
of the judiciary committee. He resigned his seat in the Senate in 
1790, having been elected Governor by the Legislature of New 
Jersey, as successor to Governor Livingston, the first Governor of 
the State. His term of service expired January i, 1793, and he was 
appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court by 
President Washington, taking his place on the bench in 1793, and 
serving until his death. He presided over several of the Whiskey 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Insurrection trials, and over the trial of Ogden and Smith for aiding 
Miranda in his South American expedition. He declined the appoint- 
ment of Secretary of State in President Washington's cabinet as suc- 
cessor to Thomas Jefferson, and also that of attorney-general. He 
received the honorary degree of LL. D. from the University of the 
State of New York in 1792, from Dartmouth and the College of 
New Jersey in 1805, and from Harvard in 1806. He was a fellow 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the author of 
"Laws of New Jersey" (1798-99). On his way to the springs in 
Saratoga county. New York, for the benefit of his health, he died at 
the home of his daughter, Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer, in Albany, 
New York, September 9, 1806. 

He was married, in 1779, to Cornelia Bell, of Perth Amboy, 
New Jersey, who died November 15, 1785, leaving two children — 
William Bell and Cornelia. He married (second) Euphemia, 
daughter of Colonel Anthony White, of New Brunswick, New 
Jersey. She died January 29, 1822, childless. 



GEORGE THEODORE WERTS 



GEORGE THEODORE WERTS, la^vyer, jurist, and Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born at Hackettstown, Warren 
county, New Jersey, March 24, 1846, son of Peter Werts. He 
attended school in Bordentown, and later attended the State Model 
School at Trenton, New Jersey. He was admitted to the bar 
in 1867. He was recorder of Morristown, 1883-85; mayor, 1886- 
92 ; served in both houses of the State Legislature, 1886-92, being at 
one time president of the Senate. He was appointed Justice of the 
Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1892, but resigned same year to 
accept the Democratic nomination for Governor, was elected and 
served 1893-96. In the latter year he resumed the practice of law 
in Morristown and Jersey City. 



RICHAKI) HOWELL 



RICHARD HOWELL, :i soldier of the Revolution, and Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born in Newark, Delaware, Octo- 
ber 25, 1754, son of Ebenezer Howell, and a descendant of William 
Howell, who came with William Penn in the "'Welcome." 

He was educated at Newcastle, Delaware, and with his twin 
brother Lewis remained at school there after his father and the 
remainder of the family removed to Cumberland county, New Jer- 
sey. The two brothers followed their father to New Jersey in 1774, 
and Lewis studied medicine, and Richard law. Richard Howell 
was a member of the disguised tea party that destroyed the cargo of 
the brig "Greyhound," stored at Greenwich, New Jersey, in Novem- 
ber, 1774; they were apprehended, but never brought to trial, as 
public opinion so sanctioning their deed, that a conviction would have 
been impossible. In December, 1775, he was appointed captain in 
the Second Regiment of New Jersey, and served at Ticonderoga and 
Quebec. He participated in the battle of Brandywine, September 
II, 1777, and was wounded. His brother Lewis was surgeon of 
the same regiment, and died of fever at the time of the battle of 
Monmouth, June 28, 1778. He served as a special agent to per- 
form secret service for General Washington, and in order to carry 
out that mission he resigned from the army in 1778. He was 
arrested at his father's house, charged with high treason, and was 
arraigned before the Supreme Court of New Jersey, but on produc- 
tion of the written orders of the commander-in-chief all proceedings 
were discontinued. He was clerk of the Supreme Court of New 
lersey, 1788-93. He was elected Cjovernor of New Jersey in 1792, 
and was reelected for five successive terms, serving from 1793 to 
1 801. He commanded the right wing of Washington's army in the 
suppression of the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794- He was a mem- 
ber of the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey. His son, Wil- 



10 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

liam Burr, served creditably in the battles on the lakes in the war of 
1812. 

Governor Howell died in Trenton, New Jersey, May 5, 1803. 



WILLIAM SANDFORD PENNINGTON 



WILLIAM SANDFORD PENNINGTON, a soldier of the 
Revolution, and Governor of New Jersey, was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, in 1757, son of Samuel and Mary (Sandford) 
Pennington, grandson of Judah Pennington, and a descendant of 
Ephraim Pennington, New Haven, 1643. 

He attended the district schools, and was apprenticed to his 
maternal uncle, a Royalist, who cancelled his indentures when Wil- 
liam joined the patriot army. He served in the Second Regiment, 
New Jersey Artillery, under General Knox, and in 1780 was com- 
missioned lieutenant. At the siege of Yorktown he was wounded, 
and in recognition of his soldierly conduct was commissioned captain 
in the United States army. Later he resigned his commission, and 
engaged in various employments. He was a representative in the 
State Assembly in 1797, and in 1801 a member of the Council. He 
studied law with Elias Boudinot, was admitted to the bar in 1802, 
and practiced in Newark. He was elected an Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of New Jersey, February 28, 1804. In 1843 he was 
chosen Governor and Chancellor ex-officio, to succeed Aaron Ogden, 
and served until he succeeded Robert Morris, deceased, as Judge of 
the United States District Court of New Jersey, serving as such, 
1815-26. He was the author of "Supreme Court Reports" (1803- 
16). He died in Newark, New Jersey, September 17, 1826. 

He married Phoebe, daughter of Captain James Wheeler, a 
Revolutionary soldier. 



AARON (KiDEN 



AARON OGDEX, a soldier ot the Revolution, and (lovernor 
of New Jersey, was born in Klizabcthtown, New Jersey, 
December 3, 1756, son of Robert Ogden, and great-grandson of 
Jonathan Ogden, one of the original founders of Elizabcthtown. 

He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A. B., 
1773, A. M., 1776, and was made assistant instructor in the gram- 
mar school. He served with the expedition under Lord Stirling that 
captured the British supply-ship, "Blue Mountain Valley," in New 
York harbor, in the winter of 1775-76. In 1777 he was commis- 
sioned captain in the First New Jersey Regiment, of which his 
brother Matthias was colonel. He took part in the battle of Brandy- 
wine, September i i, 1777; the battle of Monmouth, June 27, 1778, 
where he was brigadier-major of the advance corps of General 
Charles Lee, and assistant aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling; and the 
battle of Springfield, New Jersey, where his horse was shot, June 23, 
1780. He was named among the officers who received a vote of 
thanks from Congress. In 1779 he was entrusted by Washington 
with the official account of the trial of Andre, the decision of the 
court, and the letter addressed by Andre to his commander, which he 
delivered to the commandant at Paulus Hook. When communica- 
tion with Sir Clinton was established, the offer of Washington 
(unofficial and confidential) to Sir Henry Clinton to exchange Major 
Andre for Benedict Arnold was proferred, but was declined, Sir 
Henry saying that his honor would not permit the surrender of 
Arnold. Aaron Ogden served in Virginia under Lafayette, and was 
present at the surrender of Lord Cornvvallis at Yorktown. 

He returned to New Jersey upon the close of the war, and suc- 
cessfully practiced law. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 
Eleventh United States Infantry, January 8, 1799, and served as 
deputy quartermaster-general of the United States army from Febru- 



12 P.IOCiRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ary 26 to June 15, 1800. He was elected to the United States 
Senate, September 28, 1801, to fill the unexpired term of James 
Schureman, resigned, February 6, and continued in office until March 
4, 1803. He was a boundary commissioner, 1806. He succeeded 
Joseph Bloomfield as Governor of New Jersey by choice of the 
legislature, October 29, 18 12, serving 1 812-13. He refused the 
commission of major-general in the United States army in 1812. In 
1813 he became interested in steamboating, and undertook the estab- 
lishment of steamboat traffic between Elizabethtown and New York. 
This brought him into antagonism with Robert Fulton and the Liv- 
ingstons, who had obtained exclusive rights to navigate the waters 
of New York State by steam for a term of years. As Ogden enjoyed 
similar rights in New Jersey waters, the result was a litigation in 
which Ogden was defeated, losing his entire fortune as a result. He 
removed to Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1829, where he occupied a 
position in the custom house. He was a charter member of the New 
Jersey branch of the Society of the Cincinnati in 1783, was its presi- 
dent 1824-29, and president-general, 1829-39. He was a trustee of 
the College of New Jersey, 1817-39, and the honorary degree of 
LL. D. was conferred on him by that institution in 1816. 

He married, in October, 1787, Elizabeth, daughter of John 
Chetwood. He died in Jersey City, New Jersey, April 19, 1839. 



MAHLON DICKERSON 



MAHLON DICKERSON, lawyer, jurist and Governor of 
New Jersey, was born in Hanover, New Jersey, April 17, 
1770, son of Jonathan Dickerson, and a descendant of Philemon 
Dickerson, immigrant, who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, before 
1672, and subsequently removed to Southold, Long Island, New 
York. 

He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1789, 
and was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1793. In 1794 he 
served with the volunteers called out to suppress the Whiskey Insur- 
rection. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he con- 
tinued the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1797. He 
held several municipal offices in Philadelphia, and in 1802 was ap- 
pointed commissioner of bankruptcy. He was made adjutant-general 
of the State in 1805, resigning three years later to become recorder 
of the city of Philadelphia. In 18 10, on the death of his father, he 
removed to Morris county. New Jersey, and was a representative in 
the State Legislature, 18 12-13; a Justice of the Supreme Court, 
I 8 13-14; and Governor of New Jersey, 1 815-17. Ini8i6hewas 
elected United States Senator from New Jersey, was reelected and 
served until January 29, 1829, when he resigned his seat, being 
elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Senator Bate- 
man, completing Bateman's term March 3, 1833. In the Senate he 
was chairman of the committee on manufactures. In May, 1834. he 
declined the mission to Russia, and in June was appointed Secretary 
of the Navy in President Jackson's cabinet. He was reappointed by 
President Van Buren, and served until June 30, 1838, when he 
resigned. He was subsequently United States District Judge of New 
Jersey. 

He was actively engaged as a miner and iron manufacturer m 
.Morris county. He was president of the American Institute, 1846- 



14 HIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

48. He contributed to the "Aurora," and was author of "Speeches 
in Congress," 1 826-1 846. He died in Suckasunny, Morris county, 
New Jersey, October 5, 1853. 



ISAAC HALSTEl) WILLIAMSON 



ISAAC HALSTED WILLIAMSON, lawyer, legislator and Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
September 27, 1768, son of General Matthias and Susannah (Hal- 
sted) Williamson, grandson of William and Margaret (De Harte) 
Williamson, and of Captain Matthias De Harte. 

He received a liberal education, and studied law with his elder 
brother, Matthias. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 
1791, and as counsellor in 1796, and practiced in Elizabethtown, 
New Jersey. He was a representative in the State Legislature, 
1 8 16-17, resigning in February of the latter year, being elected Gov- 
ernor and Chancellor of the State, and served as such until 1829, 
when he resumed the practice of law. He was a member of the 
State Council, 1831-32; mayor of the borough, 1830-33. He de- 
clined reelection as Governor. He was a delegate to the State Con- 
stitutional Convention at Trenton, New Jersey, May 14, 1844, of 
which he was president. The honorary degree of LL. D. was con- 
ferred upon him by the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1839. 
He died in Elizabethtown, July 10, 1844. 

He was married, August 6, 1808, to Anne Crossdale, daughter 
of the Rev. Cavalier and Mary (Hampton) Jouet, and had two 
sons — Benjamin Williamson, chancellor, and Isaac Halsted Wil- 
liamson Jr. 



PETER DUMONT VROOAF JR. 



PETER DUMONT VROOM JR., lawyer. dipK.inat and Go%-- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born in Hillsborough township, 
New Jersey, December 12, 1791, son of Colonel Peter D. Vroom, 
of Revolutionary fame, and Elsie (Bogart) \'room, and grandson 
of George and Garretje (Dumont) Vroom. 

He attended the Somerville Academy, and was graduated 
from Columbia College, A. B., 1808, A. M., 1812. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar In 18 13, and practiced successively in Morris, 
Sussex. Hunterdon and Somerset counties, being admitted coun- 
sellor, 1 8 16, and sergeant-at-!aw, 1828. He was a representa- 
tive in the State Legislature from Somerset county, 1826-27 and 
1829. He was elected Governor of New Jersey as a Jackson 
Democrat, serving 1829-32 and 1833-36. In 1837 he was ap- 
pointed by President Van Buren a commissioner to adjust the 
claims of the Choctaw Indians. He was a Democratic representa- 
tive from New Jersey in the Twenty-sixth Congress, 1839-41, and 
in the latter year removed to Trenton, New Jersey. He was a dele- 
gate to the State Constitutional Convention, 1844; assisted in the 
revision of the State Statutes, 1846; and was a presidential elector 
on the Pierce and King ticket, 1852. He declined the office of Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, i 853. He was United 
States Minister to Prussia, 1853-57; ^''■^ named by Southern Demo- 
crats for the vice-presidency in i860; was a delegate from New 
Jersey to the Peace Convention at Washington, D. C, 1861; ap- 
pointed a commissioner of the State Sinking Fund, 1864; Reporter 
of the State Supreme Court, 1865, and was a presidential elector on 
the Seymour ticket, 1868. He received the honorary degree of 
LL. D. from Columbia, 1837, and from the College of New Jersey; 
1850, and was a trustee of Rutgers College, 1822-73. 

He married, in 1820, Anna, daughter of Peter B. Dumont; 



16 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

(second) Matilda M., daughter of General Garret D. Wall. Of 
his sons, Peter Dumont Vroom (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
1862) served with distinction in the Civil War, being promoted 
first lieutenant, Third United States Cavalry, July, 1866, appointed 
major and inspector-general, 1888, and retired as brigadier-general, 
1903 ; and Garret Dorset Wall Vroom became a jurist. 

Governor Vroom published "Reports of the Supreme Court of 
New Jersey" (1866-73). He died in Trenton, New Jersey, No- 
vember I 8, 1873. 



PHILEMON DICKERSON 



PHILEMON DICKERSON, lawyer, jurist, and Governor of 
New Jersey, was born in Morris county. New Jersey, in 1788, 
son of Jonathan Dickerson, and a direct descendant of Philemon 
Dickerson, who immigrated to Salem, Massachusetts, and removed 
to Southold, Long Island, New York, in 1672. His brother, Mah- 
lon Dickerson, was Secretary of the Navy, Governor of New Jersey, 
and United States Senator. 

He studied law and was made an attorney in 18 13, a counsellor 
in 1 8 17, and a sergeant-at-law in 1824, and practiced in Paterson, 
New Jersey. He represented his town in the New Jersey Assembly 
in 1833, and his district in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth 
Congresses, 1833-36, resigning in 1836 on being elected Governor. 
He was a representative in the Twenty-sixth Congress, 1839-41, but 
his election was contested by John B. Aycrigg, and he did not secure 
his seat until March 10, 1840, his term expiring March 3, 1841. 
He was appointed Judge of the United States District Court of New 
Jersey by President Van Buren. 

He died in Paterson, New Jersey, December 10, 1862. 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON 



WILLIAM PENNINGTON, lawyer, and Governor of New 
Jersey, was born in Newark, New Jersey, May 4, 1796, 
son of Governor William Sandford and Phoebe (Wheeler) Penn- 
ington. 

He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A. B., 
1 8 13, A. M., 18 16. He was clerk of the United States District 
Court, 1815-26. He studied law with Theodore Frelinghuysen, 
was admitted to the bar in i 820, and practiced in Newark. He was 
a Representative in the State Assembly. He was elected Governor 
of the State in 1837, to succeed Philemon Dickerson, and served by 
successive reelections until 1843. He also served ex-ffido as Chan- 
cellor and Judge of the Prerogative Court. 

An incident of his gubernatorial administration was the "broad 
seal war," a result of the congressional election of 1838. Six repre- 
sentatives were to be elected from New Jersey on a general ticket; 
the validity of the election of five of these was questioned, and Gov- 
ernor Pennington was obliged to commission those who should prop- 
erly represent the State. He therefore commissioned the five Whig 
candidates who, according to returns had the majority of votes. 
When it was found that the five votes from New Jersey must decide 
the speakership of the House, an excited debate took place, John 
Quincy Adams presiding as temporary chairman. The result was 
the election of Robert M. S. Hunter as speaker, and the five Demo- 
cratic members from New Jersey were admitted to seats. Consider- 
able feeling was aroused by the fact that seats were refused to the 
candidates commissioned under the "broad seal" of a Sovereign 
State of the United States. Governor Pennington was a Republican 
representative in the Thirty-lifth Congress, 1859-61, and was chosen 
speaker after a contest extending over two months. He was a trus- 
tee of the College of New Jersey. 1848-62. 



18 BIOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 

He married Caroline, daughter of Dr. William Burnet. His 
death was caused by a dose of morphine accidentally administered. 
He died in Newark, New Jersey, February' i6, 1862. 



THEODORE FRELIXGHUYSEX RANDOLPH 



THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN RANDOLPH, legis- 
lator, and Governor of New Jersey, was born in New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, June 24, 18 16, son of James Fitz Randolph. 

He attended the Rutgers Grammar School, and in 1840 re- 
moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he engaged in mercantile 
pursuits. He returned to New Jersey in 1852, settling in Jersey 
City. He became interested in the mining and transportation of 
coal and iron, and was president of the Morris & Essex railroad 
many years. He was a representative in the State Legislature, 1859- 
61; was elected State Senator in 1862 to fill a vacancy, and was 
reelected for the full term, serving 1862-65, and while in the Senate 
introduced a bill providing for a State Comptroller. In 1865 he 
removed to Morristown, New Jersey. He was elected Governor in 
1869. During his administration the State Riparian Commission 
was established; the Camden & Amboy monopoly tax was repealed; 
and the Morris Plains Lunatic Asylum was constructed. On the 
anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1871, he issued a 
proclamation insuring the right of parade to the Orangemen of New 
Jersey, giving them State protection, and thus avoiding a riot similar 
to the one that occurred in New York City the same day. He was 
United States Senator from New Jersey, 1875-81. He was a mem- 
ber of the Democratic National Committee; a trustee of Rutgers 
College, and one of the founders and president of the Washington 
Headquarters Association of Morristown, New Jersey. 

He married, in 185 i, Fanny F., daughter of N. D. Colman, of 
Kentucky. He died in Morristown, New Jersey, November 7, 1 883. 



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THEODOKE FHELINGHUYSExN 



npHE scon of a long line of eminent ancestors, Theodore 
A f^remghuysen, jurist and statesman, united in himself most 
of the qualities which had distinguished his family in such dif- 
ferent calhngs as those of religion and war. Possessed of the deep- 
est religious feelings, a man of great piety who carried the moral 
aspect of things always before him, and introduced it into all the 
relations of hfe whether of business or politics, he nevertheless was 
endowed with all those more brilliant talents-the powers of quick 
and determined action, and the leadership of men, which insure suc- 
cess in the affairs and occupations of the world. Equally successful 
as an educator, statesman and lawyer, he consistently held his ideal 
of abstract right above personal interest or any code of professional 
ethics so that throughout the long years spent at the practice of the 
law, he sturdily refused to associate himself with any cause which his 
conscience would have forbidden his advocacy of as a private in- 
dividual. 

Me was born in 1787, in New Brunswick, New Jersev of 
Dutch ancestry, being descended from Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Fre- 
hnghuysen, one of the most eminent divines of the Dutch Reformed 
Church in colonial times, who had come from Amsterdam in early 
days in answer to a call sent thither from the colonies, in which 
there were then a great dearth of ministers. His father was the 
General I-rederick Frelinghuysen of Revolutionary fame, who had 
served with distinction in the battles of Trenton and Monmouth 
and was one of the officers honorably mentioned in the report sent to 
Congress by General Washington, after the latter engagement 
General Prelmghuysen also served as major-general in the Whiskey 
Insurrection, and as United States Senator from New Jersey. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen early displayed the precocity which 
had marked his father's youth. He began his education at the 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



grammar school carried on in connection with Queen's College, and 
later studied under Dr. Findley at his Classical Academy at Basking 
Ridge. From this institution he entered the College of New Jersey, 
and graduated therefrom with the class of 1804, the year of his 
father's death. The profession of the law, which at that time 
offered great practical inducements to the young man of parts, both 
in itself and as the door to political preferment, made also a romantic 
appeal because of the distinguished and picturesque personalities it 
numbered within its ranks. It was this profession which young Fre- 
linghuysen chose, and it was with one of its most eminent members 
that he apprenticed himself for its study. There could have been no 
one better calculated to imbue a young man with the best traditions 
of the bar than Richard Stockton, a son of the Signer of that name, 
a United States Senator, and one of the most influential figures in 
New Jersey politics. Under so worthy a teacher, young Freling- 
huysen studied, nor were his own qualifications and character less 
praiseworthy. He was admitted to the bar in 1808 and practiced 
with great success until 1839, being engaged in most of the impor- 
tant cases of the day. In 18 17 he was elected x'\ttorney-General of 
New Jersey by a Legislature opposed to him politically, a marked 
tribute to the high character and ability which were patent to all men. 
This office he held until 1829, when he was elected to the United 
States Senate. In i 826 he had been chosen one of the Judges of the 
State Supreme Court, but had declined the honor. During his term 
in the Senate his winning personality, obvious sincerity and a peculiar 
persuasiveness of speech, operated to increase his influence to a high 
degree, so that the claim has been made that there was no man in 
Washington of that day who more potently affected the progress of 
events. When at length he gave up the senatorial duties and retired 
to Newark to take up again his private practice, he found it impos- 
sible to keep altogether out of public life, and in 1837 was elected to 
and held for a year the office of mayor of that city. 

In 1839 Frelinghuysen was chosen Chancellor of the University 
of New York, and after long hesitation accepted the office and re- 



LUOGRAPMICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 21 

moved to New York City. His acceptance of a position in so dif- 
ferent a profession as teaching marks an important epoch in Fre- 
linghuysen's life, but the change did, if anything, bring him nearer 
to the life for which he had long felt a predilection, that of minister 
of the Gospel. In 1844, indeed, he was selected by the Whig party 
as its candidate for Vice-President on the ticket headed by Henry 
Clay, but this unsuccessful campaign did not affect more than briefly 
the new life which he had chosen. In 1S50 he was chosen president 
of Rutgers College, and removed to New Brunswick, where he spent 
the remainder of his life. 

The personal character of Theoilore Frelinghuysen was a most 
attractive one. To a mind comprehensive and alert, and a concise- 
ness of reasoning, he added a most magnetic personality and great 
persuasiveness of speech. These qualities, while they contributed 
largely to his success before the bar, made him also a delightful com- 
panion and lovable friend. His strong interest in religion has 
already been remarked; how active an interest it was is illustrated 
by the fact that in 1841 he was made president of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and in 1846 presi- 
dent of the American Bible Society. In politics he was conservative, 
a strong Whig, and somewhat out of sympathy with the Democratic 
party as then constituted. When the Republican party came into 
existence he accorded it a generous support, yet here also his con- 
servatism was apparent, since, though strongly disapproving of 
slavery, he was not to be found among the more ardent .\bolitionists. 
His strongest endeavor, in the face of the new crisis, was to prevent 
the disruption of the Union, but he was not permitted to see the out- 
come of the great conflict, his death occurring in New Brunswick, in 
1862. 

Frelinghuyscn's life may be said to hriilge the period between 
the two great crises in .American history. Too young to take part 
in the great formative period, he died just as the handiwork of his 
predecessors was threatened with distruction. His character seemetl, 
however, eminently fitted for the times upon which he fell; strong, 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

sincere, persevering, his influence was a most potent instrument for 
good throughout the wide sphere in which it was felt. 



LEON ABBETT 



LEON ABBETT, lawyer, legislator, and Governor of New 
Jersey, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 8, 
1836, and his primary education was received in the public and high 
schools of that city. He studied law in the office of John W. Ash- 
mead, of Philadelphia, and upon reaching his majority was admitted 
to the bar and began practice with his former instructor. In 1859 
he removed to Hoboken, New Jersey, and was admitted to the bars 
of that State and of New York. He was appointed corporation 
counsel of Jersey City, still continuing his law practice in New 
York, as a partner of W. J. Fuller. In 1866 he removed to Jersey 
City, and in 1868 was elected as a Democrat to the House of Assem- 
bly, serving as speaker in 1869-70. He was elected to the State 
Senate in 1874, serving three years, and was its president in 1877. 
He was a candidate for the nomination for the United States Senate 
before the Democratic caucus of the State Legislature in 1877, but 
was defeated by McPherson by one vote. In 1883 he was elected 
Governor of New Jersey, and was reelected in 1889. In 1894 he 
was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State. Gov- 
ernor Abbett was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention 
at Baltimore in 1872, and acted as its secretary; in 1876, he was a 
delegate to the convention which met at St. Louis. He was a con- 
spicuous figure in the politics of New Jersey, and in the public affairs 
of the State was a leader of uncommon force. 

He died at his home in Jersey City. December 4, 1884. 



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rginia, June zh, 1842 



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SAMUEL LEWIS SOUTHARD 



SAMUEL LEWIS SOUTHARD, lawyer, and Governor of New 
Jersey, was born in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, June 9, 1787, 
son of Henry Southard. 

He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A. B., 
1804, A. M., 1807. He taught school in New Jersey, and after- 
ward studied law while a tutor in the family of John Taliaferro, of 
Virginia, and was admitted to the Virginia bar. He returned to 
New Jersey and practiced in Trenton. He served as deputy attorney 
for several years, and was admitted as counsellor-at-law in 18 14. 
He was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1815, and soon 
afterward was appointed an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
of New Jersey, serving from 1815 to 1821. He was a presidential 
elector on the Monroe and Tompkins ticket, 1820. He was a Sena- 
tor from February 16, 1821, to March 3, i 823, completing the term 
of James J. Wilson. He was Secretary of the Navy in the cabinets 
of Monroe and Adams, September 16, i823-Mai'ch 3, 1829, mean- 
while acting as Secretary' of the Treasury, March 7-July '• 1825, 
and for a brief time as Secretary of War. He was Attorney-General 
of New Jersey, 1829. Governor of the State, 1832; was again 
United States Senator from December 2, 1833, to May 31, 1842, 
when he resigned. During the Twenty-seventh Congress he acted as 
president of the Senate pro tempore. He was a trustee of Nassau 
Hall, College of New Jersey, and a charter trustee of Princeton 
Theological Seminary, 1822-42, and received the honorary- degree 
of LL. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1832. 

He was the author of "Reports of the Supreme Court of New 
Jersey, 1816-20" (1819-20); "Centennial Address" (1832); "Dis- 
course on William Wirt" (1834). 

He died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, June 26, 1842. 



CHARLES C. STRATTON 



CHARLES C. STRATTON, Congressman, and Governor of 
New Jersey, was born at Swedenboro, New Jersey, in 1796. 
He received a liberal education, and was a representative in the 
State Legislature for several terms. He was a Whig representa- 
tive from New Jersey in the Twenty-fifth Congress, 1837-39, and 
was reelected to the Twenty-sixth Congress with four other Whig 
representatives from the State; all received their credentials, bear- 
ing the broad seal of New Jersey, but were not admitted. He 
was a representative in the Twenty-seventh Congress, 1841-43; a 
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1844, and was Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, 1844-48. He devoted himself to agricultural 
pursuits on his farm in Gloucester county, near Swedenboro, where 
he died, March 30, 1859. 



GEORGE FRANKLIN FORT 



GEORGE FRANKLIN FORT, physician, jurist, and Governor 
of New Jersey, was born in Pemberton, New Jersey, in May, 
1809. He was graduated i\L D. from the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1830, and practiced medicine in New Jersey. He was a 
member of the New Jersey Assembly from Monmouth county, a 
member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1844, ^"d later 
a State Senator. He was Governor of New Jersey, 1851-54, and 
was subsequently appointed Judge of the Court of Errors and Ap- 
peals, and a member of the Prison Reform Committee. He received 
the degree of M. A. from the College of New Jersey in 1847. He 
was a distinguished Free NLison, and published "Early History and 
Antiquities of Freemasonry" (1875). 

He died in New Egypt, New Jersey, April 22, 1872. 



DANIEL HAINES 



DANIEL HAINES, lawyer, jurist, and Governor of New Jer- 
sey, was born in New York City, January 6, 1801, son of 
Elias Haines and grandson of Stephen Haines, of Revolutionary 
fame, a prisoner of war confined in the "Old Sugar House," in New 
York. 

He was graduated from the College of New Jersey, A. B., 
1820, A. M., 182-5. He was a lawyer, practicing in Hamburg, New 
Jersey, 1 8 24-77. ^^ was a member of the State Council, 1837; 
Governor of the State, 1843-441 1847-51; and Judge of the State 
Supreme Court and Court of Errors and Appeals, 1852-61. He 
was a member of the State boundary commission, 1870-76; a com- 
missioner to the National Prison Reform Association at Cincinnati, 
Ohio, 1870; a delegate to London, England, in 1872, to organize 
an international congress of prison discipline, and a trustee of the 
College of New Jersey, 1845-48, and 1853-77. He was a founder 
of the State Normal School, 1843. He defended the Goodyear 
patents in association with Daniel Webster. He was Presiding 
Judge of the Newark Circuit. He was a ruling elder in the Presby- 
terian church, and a member of the committee on reunion of the 
North and South branches of that denomination; a proiTiinent mem- 
ber of the American Bible Society; a member of the committee to 
select a site for the State Lunatic Asylum at Trenton, New Jersey, 
1845, 'in^' ^ member of the first board of managers; a manager of 
the Home for Disabled Soldiers; a trustee of the State Reform 
School; and vice-president of the National Prison Reform Associa- 
tion. 

His son. Captain Thomas Ryerson, 1838-62, College of New 
Jersey, 1857, A. M., i860, captain. United States volunteers, 1861- 
62, was killed in the battle of Harrisonburg, Virginia, during the 
Civil War. Another son, Rev. Alanson Austin, born in 1830, was 



26 BIOGRAP^HICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

graduated from the College of New Jersey, A. M., 1857, from 
Princeton Theological Seminary, 1858; he was chaplain of Fifteenth 
New Jersey Volunteers, 1861-65, witnessing thirty-six battles and 
skirmishes. He was an engineer in the Palestine exploring expedi- 
tion, 1873-74. He wrote "History of the Fifteenth New Jersey 
Volunteers" (1883). 

Governor Haines died in Hamburg, New Jersey, January 26, 
1877. 



GEORGE C HAIG LUDLOW 



GEORGE CRAIG LUDLOW, lawyer, legislator, and Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born in Milford, Hunterdon 
county. New Jersey, April 6, 1830, son of Cornelius and Julia /\nn 
(Disborough) Ludlow, and grandson of General Benjamin Ludlow, 
of Long Llill, Morris county. New Jersey. 

He was graduated from Rutgers College, A. B., 1850, A. M., 
1853. He was admitted to the bar in 1853, and practiced in New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, serving as counsel for that city and for 
several large corporations. At one time he served on the Board of 
Chosen Freeholders of Middlesex county, and was president of the 
New Brunswick Board of Education. He was Senator from Middle- 
sex county in the Legislature, 1876-79, and president of the Senate 
in 1 879. He was elected Governor as a Democrat, serving 1 88 1-84. 
He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1894, and 
was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, June 
13, 1891;, succeeding Alfred Reed. He received the honorai7 de- 
gree of LL. D. from Rutgers College in 1895. 

He married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Morris Good- 
win, of Savannah, Georgia. He died in New Brunswick, New Jer- 
sey, December 18, 1900. 



RODMAN MeCAMLEY PRICE 



RODMAN MeCAMLEY PRICE, naval officer, and Governor 
of New Jersey, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey, May 
5, 1816. He attended the College of New Jersey, but on account of 
ill health did not remain to attain graduation, and became a lawyer. 
Me was appointed purser in the United States Navy, November 5, 
1S40, serving on the "Fulton," and on the frigate "Missouri," when 
it was destroyed by lire in 1841 at Gibraltar; he was transferred to 
the "Cyane," and joined the squadron of Commodore Sloat at Mon- 
terey, California, where he aided in taking formal possession of 
that country, July 7, 1846, being a confidential adviser of the naval 
commander. He was appointed prefect and alcalde, and was the 
first citi/en of the United States to exercise judicial functions in 
California. He was bearer of confidential dispatches to General 
^c'>tt in Mexico, and a report of the military and naval operations 
to President Polk in Washington. On returning to California he 
was made a member of the convention that framed the State Con- 
stitution, and was appointed naval agent on the Pacific coast. He 
resigned from the United States Navy, December 16, 1850, and 
in returning to New Jersey on the steamer "Orleans," which was 
burned at St. John, he lost a large amount of money, valuable papers 
and accounts. He was a Democratic representative from New 
Jersey in the Thirty-second Congress, 1851-53, but was defeated 
for reelection. He was Governor of New Jersey, 1854-57. His 
administration was notable for many useful innovations. During 
his term the Normal School of the State was established; the militia 
system improved; the first life-saving apparatus and station on the 
New Jersey coast organized; and the exclusive privileges granted 
to the Camden & Amboy railroad in 1830 were settled by fixing 
a date of termination. He was involved in a litigation with the 
United States government, which extended from 1850 to 1890, in 



28 



BIOGRAPHICAL EX'CYCLOPEDIA 



which he endeavored to recover $75,000 advanced to his successor, 
the naval agent at California. In 1856 the government began an 
unsuccessful counter-suit against him for money alleged to have been 
withheld by him as naval agent. He renewed his suit against the 
government for $75,000, and in 1890 Congress ordered the payment 
of the claim, from which $60,000 was deducted by the Treasury 
officials. In 1892, however, the United States Court of Claims 
awarded him $45,704. He was arrested and imprisoned on a charge 
brought by the heirs of Samuel Forrest, U. S. N., of misappropriat- 
ing the funds of that officer, and he died at Oakland, New Jersey, 
Ju°ne 7, 1894, before the court reached a decision on his case. 



JOSEPH DORSETT BEDLE 



JOSEPH DORSETT BEDLE, lawyer, jurist, and Governor of 
New Jersey, was born at Middletown Point, New Jersey, Janu- 
ary 5, 1 83 1. After acquiring an academical education he studied 
law with William L. Dayton, of Trenton, New Jersey, and at the 
Ballston Spa (New York) Law School, and was admitted to prac- 
tice in the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 1853. He practiced 
for a short time in Middletown Point, and then opened a law office 
at Freehold, New Jersey, in 1855, where he remained ten years. In 
1865 he was appointed by Governor Parker a Justice of the Supreme 
Court, his circuit being in the northern part of the State, and his 
home in Jersey City. He was reappointed a Justice in 1872, and 
was elected Governor by the Democratic party in 1874- The Col- 
lege of New Jersey conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. m 
i8'75. After his gubernatorial term had expired, in 1878, he retired 
from public life, and practiced his profession until his death, October 
21, 1894. 



WILLIAM AUGUSTUS NEWELL 



WILLIAM AUGUSTUS NEWELL, Congressman, and Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, was born in Franklin, Ohio, Septem- 
ber 5, I 8 17, son of James H. and Eliza D. (Hanklinson) Newell, 
grandson of Hugh Newell, and a descendant of Hugh Newell, a 
native of Ireland, who settled in Monmouth county, New Jersey. 

He was graduated from Rutgers College, A B., 1836, A. M., 
1839, and from the L?niversity of Pennsylvania, M. D., 1839. He 
practiced as a physician successively at Manahawkin, Imlaystown 
and Allentown, New Jersey. He was a Whig representative in the 
Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses, 1847-51. He introduced on 
February 6, 1851, a resolution that led to the establishment of the 
Agricultural Bureau. While in Congress he attended professionally 
John Quincy Adams, when stricken with fatal illness in the Repre- 
sentative chamber. He was also family physician to President Lin- 
coln, and was a representati\-e of the State at the funerals of ex- 
President Adams and President IJncoln. He secured in 1848 an 
appropriation of $10,000 for the establishment of life-saving sta- 
tions along the New Jersey coast. He was the first Governor elected 
by the Republicans, 1857-60. He was superintendent of the lile- 
saving service of New Jersey, 1861-64. He was a Republican repre- 
sentative in the Thirty-ninth Congress, 1 865-67, and was the defeated 
candidate for Governor of New Jersey in 1877, General (jeorge B. 
.McClellan being elected. He was governor of Washington Terri- 
tory. 1880-84; United States Indian inspector, 1884-86, and resident 
surgeon of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, State of Washington, 
1894-98. He returned to Allentown, New Jersey, in 1899, and 
practiced medicine. He received the degree LL. D. from Rutgers 
College in 1881. 

He died in .Allentown, New Jersey, .August 8, 1901. 



CHARLES SMITH OLDEN 



CHARLES SMITH OLDEN, Governor of New Jersey, and 
deeply interested in education, was born in Princeton, New 
Jersey, February 19, 1799, a son of Hart and Temperance (Smith) 
Olden; grandson of Thomas and Sarah (Hart) Olden; and a de- 
scendant of William and Elizabeth (Giles) Olden; of John Hart, 
Signer of the Declaration of Independence; and of James Giles, 
who came from England in 1668, and settled in Bound Brook, New 
Jersey. 

He attended school at Princeton, and the Lawrenceville Acad- 
emy. He was a clerk in his father's store, and in that of Matthew 
Newkirk in Philadelphia. In 1826 he established a business in New 
Orleans, Louisiana, and retired with a competence in 1832, and 
engaged in farming in Princeton. He was State Senator, 1844-50. 
As a Republican he was elected Governor (1860-63), ^"*^ during 
his administration organized and equipped the full quota of troops 
for the national defense under the President's calls. To him was 
largely due the erection of the State House at Trenton, and the 
State Lunatic Asylum. He was a Judge of the Court of Errors and 
Appeals and member of the Court of Pardons, 1868-73; riparian 
commissioner, 1869-75; presidential elector, 1872; was elected 
president of the Electoral College of New Jersey, December 4, 
1872. He was treasurer of the College of New Jersey, 1845-69, 
and trustee, 1863-76, and usefully aided in extricating the college 
from financial embarrassment after the burning of Nassau Hall in 
March, 1855, when as treasurer he disbursed over $50,000 and per- 
sonally advanced $20,000. He was also instrumental in securing 
the John C. Green School of Science, and in directing the attention 
of the Green family to the university. 

He married Phoebe Ann, daughter of William and Rebecca 
(Wilson) Smith. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, April 7, 1876. 



JOEL PARKER 



JOEL PARKER, soldier, lawyer, jurist, and Governor of New 
Jersey, was born near Freehold, New Jersey, November 24, 
1816; son of Charles and Sarah (Coward) Parker; grandson of 
Thomas and Sarah (Stout) Parker, and of Captain Joseph Cow- 
ard, of the Continental army, and a descendant of Joseph Parker, 
who was settled in Monmouth, New Jersey, about 1668. 

He was prepared for college at Trenton Academy and the I aw- 
renceville High School, and graduated from the College of New 
Jersey, A. B., 1839, A. M., 1842. He studied law under Henry W. 
Green, at Trenton, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and practiced 
in Freehold, New Jersey, 1842-80. He was a Democrat, and can- 
vassed the State for \'an Buren and Johnson in 1840, and for Polk 
and Dallas in 1844. He was a member of the State Assembly in 
1847; prosecuting attorney of Monmouth county, 1852-57; and a 
presidential elector on the Douglas and Johnson ticket in i860. He 
was commissioned brigadier-general of State militia in 1857, and 
major-general in 1861. He actively supported the war measures of 
the Lincoln administration on constitutional grounds. He was Gov- 
ernor, 1863-66, and was active in the organization of volunteers. 
On the in\-asion of Pennsylvania by Lee's army in 1863, he supplied 
Governor Curtin, of that State, with several regiments of New 
Jersey volunteers. He kept up the war quota of New Jersey to its 
full number, and managed the finances of the State during the Civil 
War with such success that not a State bond was sold below par, and 
in 1865 there was a surplus of .$200,000 in the treasury. At the 
Democratic National Conventions of 1868, 1876 and 1884 he re- 
ceived the unanimous vote of the New Jersey delegation for Presi- 
dent. He was the candidate of the National Labor Reform Conven- 
tion of 1872 for Vice-President on the ticket with David Davis for 
President, but declined to accept. 1 le again became Governor of New 



32 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Jersey, 1872-74- He was Attorney-General of the State January 
to April 1875; a presidential elector on the Tilden and Hendncks 
ticket in 1876. He was a Justice of the Supreme Court for the 
Second District of New Jersey, 1880-88, and declined a fourth nomi- 
nation for Governor in 1883. He was influential in the erection of 
the monument commemorating the battle of Monmouth, which was 
unveiled November 13, 1884. He received the degree LL. D. from 
Rutgers College in 1872, and was an honorary member of the New 
Jersey branch, Society of the Cincinnati. , . , ^ 

He married, in 1843, Maria M., daughter of Samuel M. Gum- 
mere, of Trenton, New Jersey. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 2, 1888. 



JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS 



JOHN WILLIAM GRIGGS, lawyer, legislator, and Governor 
of New Jersey, was born in Newton, New Jersey, July 10, 
1849, son of Daniel and Emeline (Johnson) Griggs; grandson of 
Samuel Griggs and of Samuel Johnson; and a descendant of the 
Griggs family of Boston colony, originally from Sussex, England. 

"He was graduated from Lafayette College in 1868, was ad- 
mitted to the bar at Paterson, New Jersey, in November, 1871, and 
practiced in Paterson. He was a representative in the State Legis- 
lature, 1876-77 ; State Senator, 1 883-89, and president of the Senate 
In 1886 He was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1895, and 
inaugurated January i, 1896, the first Republican Governor inaugu- 
rated in New Jersey for thirty years. He was appointed Attorney- 
General in President McKinley's cabinet in January, 1898, on the 
resignation of Attorney-General McKenna. 



MARC us LAWRENCE WARD 



MARCUS LAWRENCE WARD, Governor of New Jersey, 
and a broad-minded humanitarian, was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, November 9, 181 2, son of Moses and Fanny (Brown) 
W'ard; grandson of James and Lydia (Nesbit) Ward; and a de- 
scendant of John Ward Sr., one of the original settlers of Newark, 
New Jersey, 1666. 

He received a liberal education, and engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits, and was one of the organizers of the Republican party in 1855. 
He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of i860 
and 1864. During the Civil War he gave his entire attention to 
promoting the physical welfare of the soldiers and their families, 
fitting out at his own expense a hospital at Newark, which was 
named the Ward United States General Hospital in his honor, and 
after the war was utilized as a home for wounded soldiers. He also 
originated a system of free communication between soldiers and 
their families, and a free pension bureau, of which he assumed the 
entire financial responsibility. He was the defeated Republican 
gubernatorial candidate of New Jersey in 1862; an elector-at-large 
on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket, 1864, and Governor of New 
Jersey, 1865-68. He was chairman of the Republican National 
Committee, 1866; a representative from New Jersey in the Forty- 
third Congress, 1873-75, '^^^ declined the appointment of Commis- 
sioner of Indian Affairs in December, 1875. He was a member of 
the New Jersey Historical Society; of the Newark Library Associa- 
tion; the New Jersey Art Union, and was actively associated with 
various public movements for the betterment of the unfortunate and 
down trodden. 

He married Susan Longworth, daughter of John and Elizabeth 
(Longworth) Morris, of Newark. He died in Newark, April 25, 
1884. 



ROBERT STOCKTON GREEN 



ROBERT STOCKTON GREEN, lawyer, jurist, and Governor 
of New Jersey, was born in Princeton, New Jersey, March 
25, 1S31, son of James Sproat and Isabella (iMcCulloh) Green; 
grandson of Rev. Ashbel Green (1762-1848) ; and great-grandson 
of Rev. Jacob Green, the Revolutionary patriot. His father was 
U. S. District Attorney for New Jersey, and Professor of Law in 
the College of New Jersey. 

Robert Stockton Green was graduated from Princeton College 
in 1850, was admitted to the bar in 1853, and was made a counsellor 
in 1856. He practiced in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was 
prosecutor of the borough courts, 1857; city attorney, 1858-68; 
member of the city council, 1863-73; surrogate of Union county, 
1862; Presiding Judge of the County Courts, 1868; and a member 
of the commission to suggest amendments to the State Constitution, 
1873. He represented the Democratic party as a delegate in the 
national conventions of i860, 1880 and 1888. He was a representa- 
tive In the Forty-ninth Congress, 1885-87. He served as Governor 
of New Jersey, 1886-90; Vice-Chancellor, 1890-95; and Judge of 
the Court of Error and Appeals, 1894-95. The College of New 
Jersey conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. in 1887. 
He was a member of the New Jersey Society of the Cincinnati; 
president of the State Society, Sons of the American Revolution, 
1888, and a vice-president-general of the National Society. 

He died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, May 7, 1895. 



FOSTER M. AOORHEES 



THE legal profession numbers amonir its members men of 
high distinction, scholarly attainments and wide experi- 
ence, and prominent among these is Foster M. Voorhees. former 
Governor of New Jersey, who was born November 5, 1856, in 
Clinton, Hunterdon county. New Jersey, son of Nathaniel W. and 
Naomi (Leigh) Voorhees, and a descendant of Holland ancestry. 
His father was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1854, but never 
practiced. 

Foster M. \'oorhecs completed his preparatory studies at the 
age of fifteen, and then became a student at Rutgers College, where 
he was graduated four years later, the second honor man of his class, 
taking the prize for moral philosophy and in Greek languages. Dur- 
ing his college career, his law studies, and until he began to practice 
his profession, he was engaged in the preparation of young men for 
college. He served as Professor of Languages in Rutgers Grammar 
School at New Brunswick, where he taught for one year, acting as 
first assistant to the rector. He prepared for his profession in the 
oflice of Magie & Cross, of Elizabeth, and was admitted as an attor- 
ney at Trenton in June, 1880. He at once began to practice in Eliz- 
abeth, and in the years that have followed has won a high reputation 
in his profession, the consequence of his powers of continued effort, 
his earnestness of purpose, his strong qualities of mind and his un- 
questioned integrity. 

Mr. Voorhees is a staunch Republican in politics, and although 
not an office-seeker has held a number of public positions. In 1884 
he was elected school commissioner, and was an active factor in the 
establishment of the High School and the Training School in Eliza- 
beth. In 1888 he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, and 
served during the years 1888-89-90. In 1893 he was elected to the 
State Senate from his county, and was reelected in 1896, being chair- 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

man of the Senate investment committee of that year. At the close 
of the first session the leadership of the Senate was given to him, the 
same position having been held by him during his career in the As- 
sembly. In 1894 he was tendered the appointment of Circuit Court 
Judge by Governor Werts, but he declined the honor, owing to the 
large amount of his law practice. When the State Senate was organ- 
ized in 1898, Mr. Voorhees was unanimously chosen president of 
that body. He served in that capacity until Governor Griggs 
accepted the Attorney-Generalship in the cabinet of President Mc- 
Kinley, when Mr. Voorhees succeeded him in the office of chief 
executive of the State. Governor Voorhees received the Republican 
nomination to succeed himself as Governor, and was elected for a full 
term in November, 1898. He was inaugurated in January, 1899. 
Since his retirement from office he has been tendered judicial appoint- 
ments, but has declined the sanie. He resides in Elizabeth. 



FRANKLIN ^[IIRPHY 



FRANKLIN MURPHY, soldier, manufacturer, and Governor 
of New Jersey, son of William Hayes and Abigail Kliza- 
beth (Hagar) Murphy, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, Janu- 
ary 3, 1846, and is now Ii\ing in Newark. He was ten years old 
when his parents removed to the latter city. He was educated in 
the well-known Newark Academy, which he left in July, 1S62, in 
order to enlist in the Thirteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers. 
He was in active ser\ice until the close of the war, a part of the 
time being with the .Army of the Potomac, and the remainder of 
his term in the west under General Sherman. At the close of the 
war he was mustered out as first lieutenant, having been promoted 
for gallant and meritorious service. 

In 1865 Mr. Murphy founded the firm of Murphy & Com- 
pany, varnish manufacturers, in Newark. In 1891 the company was 
incorporated as the Murphy Varnish Company, and since that time 
Mr. Murphy has been president. Prom the comriiencement of his 
career he has taken a deep interest in all municipal and State matters. 
He has held various public offices, including membership in the Com- 
mon Council of Newark from 1883 to 1886, being at one time presi- 
dent of that body. In 1885 he was chosen a member of the House 
of .Assembly, where he was highly regarded as a conservative and 
able leaiier. He has also held the office of park commissioner to lay 
out and complete the parks of Essex county. As a trustee for the 
Reform School for Boys during the three years term beginning 
March 24, 1886. he brought to that institution all the benefits of 
his business sagacity and wide experience. He was appointed by 
President McKinley one of the commissioners to the Paris I'niversal 
Exposition of 1900. He has been called upon to assume many re- 
sponsibilities in connection with public institutions, banks, societies 
and other organizations, such as fail to the lot of a man of general 



1.1IOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



activities, and which he has discharged in a manner as to command 
the unquahlied approval of the public. Mr. Murphy has been a 
lifelong Republican. Since 1892 he has been chairman of the Re- 
publican State Committee of New Jersey, and during his chairman- 
ship the Republican campaigns were uniformly successful, and New 
Jersey was brought prominently into the list of the Republican 
States. Since 1900 he has also been a member of the Republican 
National Committee. 

In November, 1901, Mr. Murphy was elected Governor of 
Nev,' Jersey for a term of three years, over James M. Seymour, by 
a plurality of 7,133 votes. He entered upon his office at the begin- 
ning of 1902, and in his accession to the Governor's chair, New 
Jersey was to have her first experience with a business man as her 
chief executive. Governor Murphy came to the chief magistracy 
with a national reputation as a captain of industry. He had planted 
extensive trade posts of his business in Newark, throughout the coun- 
try, and across the seas, and upon his election the people of the State 
realized that public affairs were to be administered rather upon the 
newer business lines than upon the conventional technical basis of the 
barrister's profession. With a business man's instinct, Mr. Murphy 
had devoted himself in the Common Council of Newark to the 
betterment of the city he had been called upon to serve. In the char- 
acter of his work for his home city and county there was the fore- 
shadowing that in his higher station as chief executive of the State, 
something substantial for the civic and communal betterment of New 
Jersey as a whole was to be obtained. During the three years of his 
administration Governor Murphy gave his own characteristic touches 
to the progress of the State, with many excellent results. As an 
instance. New Jersey is now earning $80,000 a year in interest upon 
balances in banks that before his time had had free use of her great 
deposits. The conservation of the Passaic river for the benefit of 
the communities through which it flows was promoted by his com- 
mission to devise means of purifying its waters. The State Depart- 
ments, which had hitherto been unscaitinized, were obliged to submit 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 39 

their books to the Inspection of an auditor; an assistant attorney-gen- 
eral was for a reasonable compensation set to doing what had previ- 
ously taken a long line of special counsel and a vast expense to accom- 
plish. An efficient system of factory inspection was established which 
did more than anything else to put an end to child labor in New 
Jersey; a tenement house commission was created to see that light 
and air were let into the homes of the poor; and then, applying the 
business man's principle of having safety checks to the nominating 
methods of the different political parties, he provided the people 
with an open primary system, surrounded by all the safeguards of a 
regular election. 

In private life Governor Murphy is an amiable, social and cul- 
tured gentleman, and has not allowed his business and political affairs 
to engross all of his time. He has given special attention to the 
development of the patriotic societies of the nation, and his interest 
in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Republic is shown in mem- 
bership on the board of managers of the National Home for Dis- 
abled Volunteer Soldiers. In spite of his large affairs and the many 
responsibilities upon his shoulders, Mr. Murphy has still found time 
to cultivate art and literature, and his business successes have not 
diverted him from higher pursuits. A uniform courtesy and grace 
of manner and geniality of disposition inherent to the man have 
made him friendships which his qualities of heart and mind have 
never failed to hold and endear. As a public speaker he has a per- 
suasiveness and grace that lend charm to his practical business views. 
The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1902 by both 
Lafayette College and Princeton University. He is a member of 
the more important Newark and New York clubs, also of the Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion, of the Sons of the American Revo- 
lution, of which he was the president-general in 1899; of the Society 
of Colonial Wars, and of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

(iovernor Murphy married, June 24, 1868, Janet, born De- 
cember 30, 1842, died February 10, 1904, daughter of Israel Day 
and Catherine Cox Gale (Iloghland) Colwell. Two children are 



40 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



now living: i. Franklin, born November 29, 1873; married, October 
17, 1908, Harriet Alexander Long, of Chicago; he is now vice-presi- 
dent of the Murphy V'arnish Company. 2. Helen, born September 
19, 1877; married, June 8, 1901, William Burnet, son of Thomas 
Talmage and Estelle (Condit) Kinney. 




^^-i* 



^_^.. 



GROVKR ( Li:VELAND 



G ROVER CLEVELAND, lawyer, statesman, and President, 
son of Re\-. Richard P'alley and Ann (Neal) Cleveland, 
was born March i8, 1837, in Caldwell, Xew Jersey, in a small two- 
story building which was the parsonage of the Presbyterian church 
of which his father was then pastor, and which is yet standing. He 
was named Stephen Grover for his father's predecessor in the pas- 
torate, but in childhood the first name was dropped. When he 
was three years old his parents removed to Fayetteville, Onon- 
daga county. New York, where he lived until he was fourteen, attend- 
ing the district school and academy. He was of studious habits, 
and his frank open disposition made him a favorite with both his 
teachers and fellows. He left the academy before he could com- 
plete the course, and took employment in a \'illage store, his wages 
being fifty dollars for the first year and one hundred dollars for the 
second year, but soon after the beginning of the latter period he 
removed to Clinton, New York, whither his parents had preceded 
him, and resumeti studies at the academy in preparation for admis- 
sion to Hamilton College. The death of his father, however, dis- 
appointed this expectation, and made it necessary for him to enter 
upon self-support. He accordingly accepted a position as book- 
keeper and assistant teacher in the New York Institution for the 
Blind, which he filled acceptably for a year. Starting west in search 
of more lucrative employment, with twenty-five dollars to defray his 
expenses, he stopped on the way at Buffalo, New York, to make a 
farewell visit to his uncle, Lewis F. Allen, a stock farmer, who in- 
duced him to remain and aid him in the compilation of "Allen's 
American Shorthorn Herd Book." In return he receiveil the sum of 
fifty dollars, anil with this aid he entered the law offices of Rogers, 
Bowen & Rogers, at Buffalo, as a clerk and law student. His student 
life was one of arduous labor and vigorous economy and self-denial. 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

For a few months he served without compensation as a copyist, and 
then received a wage of four dollars a week. He lived at a modest 
hotel, took breakfast by candlelight, worked in the office the entire 
day, and did most of his law reading at night. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1859. Meantime his employers, recognizing his ability 
and fidelity, ad\anced him to a position of confidential and man- 
aging clerk, and in three years he had saved from his salary a thou- 
sand dollars. 

Mr. Cleveland's public life began in 1S63, when he was ap- 
pointed assistant district attorney for Erie county. A staunch Demo- 
crat from his first studies in American history and politics, he had 
been a sturdy supporter of his party and an industrious worker from 
the day in 1858 when he cast his first vote. In the office to which he 
was chosen he acquitted himself so well that at the expiration of his 
term he received the unanimous nomination for district attorney. 
He had for his Republican opponent a warm personal friend, Lyman 
K. Bass, who was elected by a plurality of five hundred; Mr. Cleve- 
land, however, polled more than his part}' vote in all the city wards. 
Retiring from office in January, 1866, he formed a law partnership 
with Isaac V. Vanderpoel, former State Treasurer, under the firm 
name of Vanderpoel & Cleveland. In 1869 he became a member 
of the law firm of Laning, Cleveland & Folsom, his partners being 
Albert P. Laning, former State Senator, and for years attorney for 
the Canada Southern and Lake Shore railways, and Oscar F'olsom, 
former United States District Attorney. As in previous years, he 
sent the large portion of his earnings to his mother, to aid her in 
support of her family. In 1870 at the earnest solicitation of his 
party friends, and against his own earnestly expressed desire, he con- 
sented to become candidate for sheriff, and was elected after a stub- 
bornly contested canvass. His official conduct was warmly approved 
by the people. At the expiration of his term of office he resumed 
the practice of law, In association with Lyman K. Bass and Wilson 
S. Bissell. Mr. Bass retired In 1879 on account of ill health, the 
firm becoming Cleveland &: Bissell. In 1881 George J. Sicard was 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 43 



admitted to partnership. During all these changes Mr. Cleveland 
shared in a large and lucrative business, while he had attracted the 
admiration of bench and bar for the care with which he prepared his 
cases, and the ability and industry with which he contested them. 

In 1881 Mr. Cleveland was nominated for mayor of Buffalo 
on a platform advocating administrative reform and economy in 
municipal expenditures, and was elected by the largest majority ever 
given a candidate for that office, and at an election where, although 
the Democrats carried their local ticket to success, the Republicans 
carried the city for their State ticket by more th;m one thousand 
plurality. His administration carried unstinted approval, for his 
courageous devotion to the interests of the people and his success in 
checking unwise, illegal and extravagant expenditures, saving to the 
city a million dollars in the first six months of his term, and he was 
a popular favorite as "Ihe Veto Mayor." He was now a State 
celebrity, and the convention of his party held September 22, 1882, 
at Syracuse, nominated him for (lovernor. He was elected over the 
Republican nominee, Charles J. Folger, by the tremendous plurality 
of 192,854 — the largest plurality ever given a gubernatorial candi- 
date in any state in the Union, .\mong the chief acts of his adminis- 
tration were his approval of a bill to submit to the people a proposi- 
tion to abolish contract prison labor; his veto of a bill permitting 
wide latitude to savings bank directors in investment of deposits; 
his veto of a similar bill respecting insurance companies; and his 
veto of a bill to establish a monoply by limiting the right to con- 
struct certain street railways to companies heretofore organized, to 
the exclusion of such as should hereafter obtain the consent of prop- 
erty owners and local authorities. 

Mr. Cleveland was nominated for President by the Democratic 
National Convention in Chicago, in July, 1884, receiving 683 votes 
out of a total of 820. His Republican opponent was Hon. James G. 
Blaine. The campaign was remarkable for the discussion of the 
personal characters and qualifications of the candidates rather than 
political principles. At the election Mr. Cleveland received a major- 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ity of thirty-seven in the Electoral College, and a majority in the 
popular vote of 23,005, out of a total of 10,067,610. At his inaugu- 
ration, March 4, 1S85, he delivered an admirable inaugural address, 
with flowing ease, and his modesty and sincerity impressed all hearers. 
He took his official oath upon a small morocco-bound, gilt-edged 
Bible, a gift from his mother when as a lad he first left home. Among 
the most important acts of his administration was his proclamation 
of March 13, 1885, for the removal of white intruders from Okla- 
homa, Indian Territory; and, after the burning of Aspinwall, Pan- 
ama, by the revolutionists, March 31, 1885, his ordering a naval 
expedition to protect American persons and property. 

Mr. Cleveland was unanimously renominated for President in 
18S8, but was defeated by Benjamin Harrison, Republican, although 
his plurality in the popular vote was more than 100,000. He then 
located in the city of New York and again took up his profession. 
In June, 1892, he was nominated for the Presidency a third time, by 
the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, receiving on the 
first ballot 617 1-3 votes out of 910, the nomination then being made 
unanimous. At the election he defeated Benjamin Harrison by a 
plurality of 1 10 in the Electoral College, and a plurality of 379,150 
in the popular vote. He was inaugurated March 4, 1893, '" ^^^ 
presence of a vast multitude in midst of a blinding snowstorm. The 
military and civic parade was more imposing than on any other 
similar occasion. His administration was marked by some most 
unusual features. His first important act was to call a special session 
of Congress, August 7, 1893, and in pursuance of his recommenda- 
tion was repealed the act of 1890 calling for the monthly purchase 
of $4,500,000 of silver bullion. In this he was opposed by the silver 
wing of his party. Elected as he was on a tariff-reform platform, 
both houses of Congress were in accord with him on that issue, and 
in 1894 was passed the Wilson bill, a tarlff-for-revenue-only measure. 
The industrial and financial stagnation of that period was ascribed 
by the Republicans to this measure, while the Free-Silver Democrats 
attributed it in larp;e degree to the repeal of the silver-purchase meas- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 45 



ure, and In November of the same year the Repubhcans won a protec- 
tive tariff victory, with the result that during the latter half of Presi- 
dent Cleveland's administration he had to deal with a Republican 
Congress. He performed invaluable service to law and order and pro- 
tection to property by his firm stand with reference to the railroad 
riots in July, i 894, ordering United States troops to Chicago and 
other railroad centers to enforce the orders and processes of the 
Federal courts, and to prevent interference with inter-state com- 
merce and the transmission of the United States mails. On January 
I, 1895, he appointed, with the consent of the Senate, the commis- 
sion to inquire into the Venezuelan boundary. During the insurrec- 
tion in Cuba he took strong measures against the violation of the 
neutrality laws. In February, in order to preserve the national 
credit, he ordered an issue of four per cent, thirty-year bonds to the 
amount of $62,000,000. May 29th he vetoed the river and harbor 
bill calling for an immediate expenditure of $17,000,000, and author- 
izing contracts for the further sum of $62,000,000, but the bill was 
passed over his veto. In the summer of the same year he received the 
signal compliment of being chosen as arbitrator in the dispute be- 
tween Italy and Colombia, in which the former claimed large pecuni- 
ary damages for injuries sustained by Indians during the revolution 
of 1885. Late in 1895, in his annual message, he recommended a 
general reform of banking and currency laws, and accomplished the 
settlement of the Venezuelan boundary, the treaty being signed Feb- 
ruary 2, 1896. In the latter year he issued an order under which 
thirty thousand additional posts in the civil service were placed under 
restrictions formulated by the Board of Civil Service Commissioners. 
In the same year he sent General Mtzhugh Lee to Havana as consul- 
general — an appointment which was approved by a great mass of 
Union v^eterans almost as heartily as it was by the ex-Confederates. 
On June 16, 1896, he issued an open letter condemning the free- 
silver movement, and approving the principles of the Gold Wing of 
the Democratic party, a document which had a salutary and far- 
reaching effect. Before the expiration of his official term he had the 



46 DIOGRAPHICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 



great pleasure of witnessing the execution of a treaty between the 
United States and Great Britain providing for the establishment of 
an international tribunal of general arbitration. 

One of President Cleveland's last public appearances before 
retiring from his high office, was the delivery of an address at the 
sesquicentennial celebration of Princeton College, which took on its 
more appropriate title of University. Shortly afterward he pur- 
chased a home in Princeton, where his first son was born. Known 
as a polished and forceful writer, Mr. Cleveland's most important 
papers have been widely published. His annual message of 1887 
was issued in a sumptuous edition dc luxe, illustrated by the famous 
artist, Thomas Nast. An important compilation of his utterances 
was made by Francis Gottsberger, of New York, under the title, 
"Principles and Purposes of Our P\irm of Government, As Set Forth 
In Public Papers of Grover Cleveland," and George F. Parker edited 
a volume, "Writings and Speeches of Grover Cleveland." In 1904 
appeared "Presidential Problems," a volume of essays by Mr. Cleve- 
land, two of which were originally delivered at Princeton Univer- 
sity, the others being articles which had their original appearance in 
leading magazines. 

Mr. Cleveland was of striking personality, commanding re- 
spect and confidence under all circumstances and before all manner 
of assemblages. Physically of large and powerful frame, in motion 
he was deliberate and firm, yet without slowness. In manner and 
\oice he was genial and agreeable. Broad-minded and liberal in 
thought, he was tolerant and charitable. In religion he was a man 
of conscience rather than of any set creed. All his personal habits 
were marked by Democratic symplicity, and totally devoid of osten- 
tation. After his retirement from the loftiest place open to an Amer- 
ican, he steadily grew in the regard and affection of the people, while 
publicists and political students are only beginning to adequately 
measure the wisdom and beneficence which were the characteristics 
of his public career. He died June 24, 1908. 

In the second year of his first Presidential term, June 2, 1886, 



BIOGRAPHICAL EK'CYCLOPEDIA 47 

President Cleveland was married to Miss Frances Folsom, the cere- 
mony being performed by Rev. Byron Sunderland, D. D., in the 
Blue Room in the White House. Of this marriage were born : Ruth, 
in the city of New York, October 3, 1891 ; Esther C, in Washington 
City (the first child ever born in the White House), September 9, 
1893; Maria C, at "Gray Gables," Bu/zard's Bay, Barnstable 
county, Massachusetts, July 7, 1895; Richard Folsom, at Wcstland, 
Princeton, New Jersey, October 28, 1897. 



JOHN FRANKLIN FORT 



HON. JOHN FRANKLIN FORT, a lawyer and jurist of ex- 
cellent abilities, and former Governor of New Jersey, has 
made a notable career in public as well as in professional life, and 
his administration as Governor was marked with phenomenal useful- 
ness to the commonwealth, and reflected high honor upon himself. 
He was born in Pemberton, Burlington county. New Jersey, March 
20, 1852, son of Andrew H. P'ort. The father was a member of the 
Assembly in 1 866-67, and his brother, George F. Fort, was Governor 
from 185 I to 1854. 

John Franklin Fort received his primary education in Pember- 
ton in Miss Nicholson's private school, and then entered Pemberton 
Academy, where his teacher was Charles E. Hendrickson, who later 
became his warm personal friend, and his associate on the Supreme 
Court bench. His next tutor was William Hutchinson, afterward 
favorably known as the "John Sands," of the "New York Sun." He 
then attended the Mount Holly Institute, conducted by Charles 
Aaron, and afterward the Pennington Seminary, from which he was 
graduated in 1869, and in the fail, being only in his eighteenth year, 
he entered upon his law studies. His first reading was in Philadel- 
phia, in the office of the late Chief Justice Edward M. Paxton, and 
continued but six months, when his preceptor was appointed to a 
judicial position. Mr. Fort then returned to Mount Holly, where 
he continued his studies under Ewan Merritt, meanwhile teaching 
school at Ewansville in order to maintain himself. He subsequently 
read law under Colonel Garrit S. Cannon, in Bordentown, and then 
entered the Albany Law School, from which he was graduated in 
1872, with the bachelor's degree. While a student there, among his 
most intimate friends and housemates was former Chief Justice 
Alton B. Parker (presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket in 



I'.lUCiRAl'llJCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 49 

1904), and the triendship which was then engendered has continued 
to the present day, unatiected by the asperities of poHtical antagonism. 

Mr. Fort, although graduated in the law, was not of sufficient 
age to admit of his admission to the bar, and he again entered the 
law offices of Mr. Merritt. In November, 1873, shortly after he 
had attained his majority, he was admitted as an attorney, and 
entered upon a position which has been more than once interrupted 
by the duties of official position, and the exigencies of politics. When 
he graduated from his law school, and the hotly contested Grant- 
Greeley campaign of 1872 was on, he entered the campaign with 
vigor and enthusiasm, notwithstanding he was not yet of age, and 
was without a voting right. During the next six months he made 
twenty-seven speeches in South Jersey in support of General Cirant. 
In the winters of 1873-74 he was assistant journal clerk of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, earning sufficient money to entirely reimburse his 
father for his contribution to his education. Upon the advice of 
Senator John W. Taylor, then president of the Senate, he went to 
Newark to engage in the practice of his profession, but almost on the 
instant became interested in politics, and in September, 1874, took 
the stump for George A. Halsey, Republican candidate for Gov- 
ernor. In 1878 he was appointed a Judge of the First District Court 
of Newark by Governor McClellan, and he was reappointed by Gov- 
ernor Ludlow, but resigned in 1886 to devote his attention to law 
practice, and in which he continued until December, 1896, when 
Governor Ciriggs appointed him President Judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas of Essex county. On May 4, 1900, he w^as appointed 
by Governor Voorhees to be a Justice of the Supreme Court, presid- 
ing over the courts in the counties of Atlantic, Morris, Monmouth, 
Middlesex, Ocean, Union and Hudson. In Monmouth county he 
directed the movements resulting in the expulsion of the gamblers 
from Long Branch in 1902. 

His subsequent career forms a uniijue and notable chapter in 
State history. In 1907 he became the Republican candidate for Gov- 
ernor. The nominating convention was probably the most turbulent 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ever held in the State. He had the support of the so-called "Regu- 
lars," and a part of the "New Idea" faction of his party. He was at 
the time a Supreme Court Justice, and actually sitting in a conference 
of the court at the time of his nomination. He instantly resigned 
his judicial office, and, appearing before the convention, accepted the 
nomination in a forceful and independent speech. The platform 
upon which he was nominated was progressive along all lines. 
Among the measures which it favored were : A primary law for ex- 
pression of choice for United States Senator; reform of the petit 
jury system and the selection of grand juries; extension of primary 
law, and prevention of fraud at primaries; a Public Utilities Com- 
mission, with power for the effective regulation of such corporations; 
the maintenance of the so-called Bishops law for saloon regulation; 
continuance of the good road policy of the State; a constitutional 
amendment for election of assemblymen by districts; abolition of 
useless commissions and departments, and consolidation of others; 
and a general and effective civil service statute. 

Governor Port's campaign was the most thorough and active 
ever made in the State. He was elected November 5, 1907, by a 
plurality of 8,013 over Frank S. Katzenbach, the Democratic candi- 
date. His inaugural address was publicly commended by President 
Roosevelt as a remarkable State document. Its keynote was "Keep 
Party Pledges," and he stood for that principle on all occasions 
throughout his administration. Under him much effective and 
valuable legislation was enacted. Among others : A general civil 
service act; a public utilities bill with a reasonable power, but not as 
broad as the Governor desired; a highway system throughout the 
State with a highway along the Atlantic Ocean; the opening of an 
inland watenvay between Bay Head and Cape May, through the 
various bays and arms of the sea of the State; reforms in state insti- 
tutions; extension of direct primaries to the selection of county com- 
mittees; laws to protect the various reservations of the State, and to 
prevent forest fires from sparks from locomotives; a scheme for the 
establishment of a State Park at Washington's Crossing on the Dela- 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 51 

ware; the improvement of the general system of finances of the State; 
a commission of experts to revalue the railway propertv (if the State 
for purposes of taxation; statutes modifying the law as to accidents 
at railway crossings; general act modifying the doctrine as to liability 
of employers for accidents to employes; the creation of a commis- 
sion to recommend to the State a law for the establishment of a gen- 
eral system for compensation for injured employes; an act providing 
for the retirement of judicial officers after long and faithful service, 
on one-third of their salary; general acts for the conservation of the 
waters of the State, and preventing their transportation from the 
State; statutes providing for the uniting of various cities in the con- 
struction of municipal plants through the State Water Supply Com- 
mission for the supply of water to municipalities; a law protection 
against fraud in the transmission of moneys to foreign points by 
prixatc bankers. 

He looked into the affairs of all State institutions and depart- 
ments more closely than any previous Governor, and suggested many 
reforms therein. His motto was "Do only for the State," and 
neither party nor friendship reasons had the least influence in mold- 
ing his action. 1 lis independent course gave him great strength with 
the people, and correspondingly lessened his influence with the polit- 
ical organizations and time-servers. His party leaders soon broke 
with him because they could not use him, and because he insisted that 
a political pledge was as sacred as any other, and because he stood 
for progressive legislation for the regulation of corporations. All 
legislation against the interests of the people was killed during his 
term. Governor Fort, during his term, vetoed more proposed legis- 
lation than probably any other Governor in the history of the State, 
there having been sixty-eight vetoes during the session of the legis- 
lation of 19 lo alone. 

During his career, Governor Fort has been a conspicuous figure 
in Republican party councils. In 1884 he was a delegate-at-Iarge to 
the National Convention at Chicago, and with six others held out 
in advocacy of George F. Fdmunds, of Vermont, for the Presi- 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

dency, and, when that gentleman's name was dropped, gave his ad- 
herence to James G. Blaine. In 1889 he was chairman of the State 
Convention which nominated General E. Burd Grubb for Governor, 
and toured the State with him. He was chairman of the Griggs con- 
vention in 1895, and was a speaker with the latter in the "whirlwind 
campaign" which resulted in the election of the first Republican Gov- 
ernor in thirty years. In 1896 he was a delegate to the National 
Convention of St. Louis, and made the speech nominating Garret A. 
Hobart for the vice-presidency. He was also chairman of the com- 
mittee on credentials, and presented the majority report reading J. 
Edward Addicks, of Delaware, out of the party, and his speeches in 
advocacy of that report, and renominating Mr. Hobart, gave him a 
national reputation as an orator. He was also a delegate-at-large to 
the Republican National Convention in 1908, supporting Mr. Taft 
for nomination. 

At various times Governor Fort has on request made notable 
speeches in different parts of the country, on various subjects. In 
1S99 he made a tour of European prisons, under a commission from 
the United States Government, and on his return made an elaborate 
report. The idea of probation and indeterminate sentence was so 
new, that when Governor Fort drew the original bill providing for 
such a system in New Jersey, he had trouble in finding some one to 
introduce it in the Assembly. When the bill came up for hearing, 
he appeared in its behalf, with the result that it was passed in both 
houses with but a single dissenting voice. 

In April, 1878, Governor Fort married Charlotte, daughter of 
former State Senator William Stainsby, of Newark. He has three 
children: Miss Margretta Fort, Frank W. Fort, a lawyer of New- 
ark, and Leslie R. Fort, editor of the Lakewood "Times and 
Journal." 

Governor Fort was president of the Sons of the American Rev- 
olution of New Jersey from 1905-1909, and is a member of the 
American Bar Association, the New York and East Orange Repub- 
lican Club, the Bergen County L'nion League, the Essex Club and 



P.IOGRAPllICAL K\-CVCL.OPEDIA 53 

the Lakewood Country Club. The degree of LL. D. has been con- 
ferred upon him by Dickinson College, Seton Hall College, New 
York and Union Universities, and Rutgers, Lafayette and Middle- 
bury Colleges. In 191 1, on retiring from the Governorship, he 
made a trip around the world, spending much time in the Orient, 
being received everywhere with much honor, especially in Japan. 
lie is now engaged in the practice of law at Newark. 






PHILEMON DICKINSON 



AMONG those adventurous spirits whose enterprise induced 
them to seelc homes in the New World, still given up 
wholly to impenetrable wilderness, were the Dickerson brothers, 
young Englishmen, who following in the train of the early explorers, 
came to Massachusetts in 1638 and were admitted as Freemen of 
Salem by that hardy community in 1641. They and their descendants 
were admirable representatives of the sturdy British stock which, 
trained by the stern conditions of life in the new continent, produced 
so many of the great and good men whose foresight and wisdom have 
gi\en to the United States the proud position she holds among nations. 
Still lured in his search for fortune by the promise of new lands, Phile- 
mon Dickerson, one of the brothers, left the Massachusetts colony 
and settled in 1672 on Long Island. 

It was after this his great-grandfather, that General Philemon 
Dickinson (as the name had come to be spelled), soldier and states- 
man, was called, and with the name he seemed to Imbibe all of his 
forebear's courage and enterprise. When only about five years of age, 
his family, including his father and three uncles, had removed from 
Long Island and settled in Morris county, New Jersey, and it Is from 
these brothers that the Dickerson and Dickinson families of that 
State are descended. Dickinson's birth was in 1740, and he may be 
said to have fairly grown up with the Revolution. When still a 
youth he began to take a vital interest in the questions which were 
even then stirring men's hearts and minds, and he soon became 
known as one who deeply sympathized with the cause of the op- 
pressed colonies, and was willing to risk all he possessed In the con- 
flict which threatened. During the time of preparation for the com- 
ing struggle, when the minds of all were oppressed by doubt and 
apprehension, he was one of the strong men who never flinched In 
their determination to face whatever peril and loss should be Involved 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 55 

in the war for freedom and human rights. He was active in the 
effort to properly organize and train the militia of New Jersey, and 
the beginning of hostilities found him an officer of the same. He 
was soon raised to the rank of brigadier-general, and at the head of 
his men took part in several important engagements. Among these 
were Trenton and Monmouth, in both of which battles Dickinson 
and his detachment behaved in creditable fashion, and in the latter 
actually opened the engagement by taking part in the first prelimi- 
nary skirmish of the day. 

At the close of the war, in which he had risked not only his 
life but family fortune, Dickinson returned to the retirement of pri- 
vate life for a time, but later was called upon by an appreciative com- 
munity to represent it in the United States Senate, from 1 790 to 1 793. 
He was the third man so chosen from his State, those preceding him 
being William Paterson, the great jurist, and Jonathan Elmer. It 
was to fill the vacancy left by the former, who had been elected Gov- 
ernor of New Jersey, that Dickinson was called, and for three years 
he held his honorable post with a wisdom not less than his courage 
on the field of battle. The last twelve or fifteen years of his life were 
spent in retirement on his countn,' estate near Trenton, and here on 
February 4, 1809, he died, honored and loved by the whole com- 
miinitv. 



FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN 



GENERAL FREDERICK FRELINGHUYSEN, lawyer, sol- 
dier and statesman, was born in Somerville, April 13, 1753. 

He graduated from Princeton College in the class of 1 770, when only 
seventeen years old, having been the classmate of President James 
Madison and of S. Stanhope Smith, who later became president of 
Princeton. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar, and at the early 
age of twenty-two was elected a member of the Continental Congress 
in 1775. From this office he resigned two years later and returned to 
his native town. There is in existence a very interesting letter from 
Frelinghuysen to Colonel Camp, with reference to his resignation, 
which explains the matter in a way most creditable to the young man. 
In this, as reason for surrendering so honorable a position, he pleads 
his extreme youth and unfamiliarity with the affairs of state, and 
urges that some older man better equipped for the work in hand be 
appointed in his place. Upon his return to Somerville he busied 
himself with the formation of an artillery corps of which he was 
chosen captain, and which offered its services to the Continental Con- 
gress in the hostilities then on the point of breaking out. Shortly 
after this. Captain Frelinghuysen was promoted to the rank of 
colonel of militia of New Jersey, and took pan creditably in the 
battles of Trenton and Monmouth. In addition to his military activ- 
ities he was a member of New Jersey's Provincial Congress and of 
the famous Committee of Safety. The war over, Frelinghuysen 
retired temporarily to private life, but was in 1793 elected Senator 
from New Jersey to the United States Congress. Three years later 
he resigned because of personal bereavement and family claims, and 
retired finally to private life. 

In a period so prolific of great men as that of the Revolution, 
it required qualities unusual, indeed, to mark a man as worthy of 
distinction, but in whatever period he might have lived, in whatever 



BIOGRAPHICAL EX'CYCLOPEDIA 57 

society he might have mingled, Frederick Frelinghuysen would have 
been known for the (juaiities of his race, qualities which he trans- 
mitted undiminished to his descendants. He died in 1804, on his 
fifty-lirst birthday, honored and mourned by the whole community. 
In the epitaph upon the monument which his children raised over him 
occur these words, which are only just in their appreciation: "At 
the bar he was eloquent, in the Senate he was wise, in the field he was 
brave. * * * He gave his hand to the young, his counsel to 
the middle aged, his support to him who was feeble in years." To 
this might have been added appropriately the motto discovered on 
a collection of the sermons of his gramlfather. Rev. Theodorus 
Jacobus Frelinghuysen: "Lcitidcm non qiiero; citlpam non titneo" — 
"1 ask not praise: I fear not blame." 



JONATHAN ELMER 



JONATHAN ELMER, physician and statesman, was born in 
Cumberland county. New Jersey, in 1 745 , and was thus the same 
age as his great associate, Paterson, who first saw the Hght of day at 
Antrim, Ireland, in the same year. He took up the study of medicine 
at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which 
he graduated, returning at once to his native county, where he took up 
the practice of his profession. Here he soon made a name for him- 
self as a physician, taking a leading part among his fellow practi- 
tioners in that part of the State, and also won the respect of the 
community both for his probity and for his active interest in the 
rights of the colonies, the subject then most dear to the hearts of all. 
When at last the fire which had so long been smouldering burst into 
flame and the colonies, for the more definite and explicit formula- 
tion of their demands and a better understanding of the policies to 
be mutually pursued, called together their Continental Congress, 
Elmer was chosen as one of those best fitted to represent his State in 
that fateful body, and here in this capacity he served in the years 
1776-77-78-81-82-83-84 and 1787. Besides this honorable office, he 
also served in the scarcely less hazardous positions of sheriff, surro- 
gate and judge in his own State, during the continuance of actual 
hostilities. 

At the close of the war Elmer was elected along with Paterson 
to represent the new State as Senator in the first Congress of the 
Federation, and in this capacity served two years. Their election 
took place in 1789, and one year later Paterson was called by the 
State Legislature to be Governor of New Jersey in place of Gov- 
ernor Livingston, who had died in office. From 1 790 to 1 79 1 , Phile- 
mon Dickinson was Elmer's associate in the Senate. 

A gentleman, a man of culture, a scholar, a member of a well 
known philosophical society, Jonathan Elmer was of the best type 



BIOGRAPHICAL E.X CYCLOPEDIA 59 

of those devoted patriots who wrought such a mighty work against 
such odds. Gentility, culture, learning, philosophy — all serve to 
increase the prudence of their possessors, and if they he not of the 
highest kind, the increase will take place at the expense of courage. 
In the men of that day, however, the men of Elmer's t}'pe were not 
more backward than the swain in asserting and defending the rights 
which it was their glory to believe in so ardently. Then, indeed, do 
we see the man of thought and the man of action united in one 
pe'son, and such a person was Jonathan F.lmer. 



RICHARD STOCKTON 



RICHARD STOCKTON, lawyer and stafesman, was one of 
those men who seem to have been selected by fate for an hon- 
orable and eminent career. His very name to one of his ability was 
an heritage of worth, for to the newly born nation the names of those 
who had signed her bold and splendid declaration to the world were 
the very symbols of her pride, the objects upon which it was her boast 
to shower the best and highest honors within her gift. 

The first Richard Stockton emigrated from England to America 
some time previous to 1760, and settled on Long Island. Later the 
family moved to New Jersey and established the Stockton country 
estate near Princeton, with the history of which place their own is 
intimately connected. Perhaps the best known member of the family 
was the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born on the 
estate in 1730, and graduated with the first class of the College of 
New Jersey, then situated at Newark but afterwards removed to 
Princeton, where it became the college of that name. He was a 
member of the New Jersey Provincial Congress; a Judge of the 
Provincial Supreme Court, 1774; and a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, 1776-77. On July 4, 1776, he signed the Declaration of 
Independence as one of the representatives of New Jersey. He was 
defeated by William Livingston for the first Governorship of New 
Jersey, but was elected Chief Justice, an honor which he declined. 
His wife was Annis Boudinot, a member of the distinguished family 
of that name, and a woman of high accomplishment and decided 
literary gifts. 

Of such parents, and inheriting alike their powers of character 
and intellect along with an enviable name, Richard Stockton the 
younger was born in 1764, and early in his youth began to show 
signs of an unusual precocity. His record during the period of his 
education amply bore out this first impression, and he completed his 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 61 

classical studies and graduated from Princeton College before he was 
seventeen years of age. He then took, up the study of law in the 
office of his uncle, Elisha Boudinot, in Newark, and was admitted to 
the bar in 17S4, when just twenty years old. Owing probably to his 
extreme youth, his practice took some little time to build up, and his 
progress before the bar was somewhat slow at first. After a short 
time, however, he established himself in the opinion of his fellow 
barristers, and his unusual abilities carried him forward until he be- 
came deservedly the acknowledged leader of the bar in his State. 
His practice also became the largest in New Jersey, and his was the 
most important and most talked of name in that region. He was one 
of the very few lawyers of the State who practiced before the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, there being at that time but little 
litigation carried from New Jersey to that tribunal. Stockton, in- 
deed, combined in his person most of the requisites of the perfect 
lawyer. He was a profound student, a clear thinker, and most elo- 
quent of address. Possessing great powers of invective and retort, 
and a master in the use of sarcasm, he was one of the most effective 
court lawyers of his time, and his addresses to juries were recognized 
as models of logical construction and persuasive eloquence. 1 hey 
had rarely been equalled, it was claimed, and yet, by a piece of singu- 
lar misfortune, scarcely a record of them has been preserved to us. 
One fine specimen, indeed, has come down to us through the accident 
of its being appended to the report of a commission which the State 
Legislature ordered printed in iSiS. I'his is an argument in favor 
of New Jersey's claim to the waters of the Hudson, and well bears 
out the reputation claimed tor its author. 

Stockton was a boy of twelve when the I\e\olution was started, 
but his mature life fell upon times scarcely less critical in the history 
of his country. His career as a statesman, for which by nature and 
talents he was eminently fitted, was undoubtedly much curtailed by 
the fact that his politics were at that time out of favor. He 
was a ^"ederalist of the I lamiltonian school, an artlcnt believer in the 
centralization of the powers of government, while for the time being 



62 BIOCiRAPHICAL E^'CYCLOPEDIA 

the beliefs and influence of Jefferson were in the ascendant. In spite 
of this, however, he was elected United States Senator from New 
Jersey in 1796 to fill the place left vacant by the retirement of Sena- 
tor Frelinghuysen, and held his seat until 1799, when he lost it to a 
Democrat. In 18 13, when trouble was again brewing with Great 
Britain, he regained his seat in the Senate temporarily, and took a 
most active part in the proceedings, proving himself a worthy con- 
frere of Webster, Calhoun and Clay. But while he thus, by virtue 
of his unusual gifts, won himself an honorable if transient place in 
the government, it is probable that his work of greatest value was 
performed through the medium of his private law practice. It was at 
about this time, or from 181 8 until his death in 1828, that his leader- 
ship of the New Jersey bar was undisputed, and that he made many 
of those eloquent addresses which won him such well merited honor. 
Personally, Stockton typified all that we think of when we speak 
of a lawyer of the old school. Of a most imposing presence, with 
manners the most polished, a bearing so elegant that he won for him- 
self in later life and among the junior members of the bar the sobri- 
quet of "the old dude," he was nev-ertheless a most courteous and 
affable gentleman, easy of approach and of democratic instincts, com- 
bining thus within himself those qualities, the possession of which by 
so many of its earlier members, has given to the traditions of the 
.American bar their dignity and worth. 



JOHN CONDIT 



ONE is often surprised, in reading the records ot the Re\()- 
liitionary period, at the great number dl able men appear- 
ing then, and one is disposed to ask what could have been the 
cause of so marked an efflorescence. Of course, in a measure, the 
appearance is deceptive; it is only those who in some manner distin- 
guished themsehes that find their way into history, and for each of 
these there were many who remained in the ranks undiscovered of 
fame. Nevertheless, though this be true, it is undeniable that there 
existed a very high average of character and intelligence during that 
time of storm and stress. 

In the history of John Condit we have a case in point. His 
great-great-grandfather, John Cunditt, emigrated in all probability 
from Wales, sometime previous to 1678, and settled in Essex county, 
New Jersey, where he purchased lands and founded the distinguished 
Condit family still prominent in that region. John Condit, the sub- 
ject of this sketch, was born July 8, 1755, in Orange, New Jersey, 
where he carried on farming to which occupation he added that of 
physician, ha\'ing an excellent practice thereabouts. Interested 
actively in the American cause of freedom, he joined the Continental 
army at the beginning of the war, and here turned his professional 
knowledge and skill to good account, serving in the difficult and 
arduous post of surgeon during the conflict. When peace had been 
restored he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and after- 
wards, from 1799 to 1803, to the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives. In the latter year the Legislature sent him to the Senate 
of the United States, where he served until 18 17, a worthy contem- 
porary of the brilliant men of his period. 

Mr. Condit was twice married — first to Abigail Halsey, who 
died in 1784, and then to Rhoda Halsey, with whom he lived until 
1834, in which year both Mr. and Mrs. Condit died. 



HUGH MERCER 



GENERAL HUGH MERCER, for whom the county of Mer- 
cer is named, was a member of a distinguished Scottish fam- 
ily which had furnished, particularly to the kirk, men famous in pub- 
lic life. His great-grandfather, John Mercer, was a minister of the 
church in Kinnellan, Aberdeenshire, from 1650 to 1676, from which 
pastorate he resigned a year before his death. 

The grandfather of Hugh Mercer was Thomas Mercer, whose 
son William was educated for the ministry, and was in charge 
of the Manse at Pittsligo, Aberdeenshire, from 1720 to 1748; he 
married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Munro, of Foulis, who was 
killed while commanding the British troops at Falkirk in 1746. 
Hugh Mercer, son of Rev. William Mercer, was born probably in 
172^, as he was baptized in January, 1726. Of his boyhood life 
little is known. As was the case with many Scottish lads, he entered 
college when about fifteen years of age, matriculating in the School 
of Medicine, Marshall College, in 1740, graduating in 1744. Moved 
by the loyal spirit of his ancestors, he joined the army of Prince 
Charlie, the "Young Pretender," and appears as assistant surgeon 
upon the ill-starred field of Culloden. In the autumn of 1746 he set 
sail from Leith, remained a short time in Philadelphia, and settled 
at Greencastle, Pennsylvania, now Mercersburg, then upon the fron- 
tier of new world civilization. Practicing his profession In the wilds 
of the "Indian country," Hugh Mercer does not appear prominently 
until the year 1755, when in the Braddock Expedition he appears as 
a captain of militia. Following Braddock's humiliating defeat, Hugh 
Mercer, although wounded, walked many miles through the wilder- 
ness to his home. Early in the spring of 1756 he was selected as 
captain of the local militia, having supervision over a wide district, 
with McDowell's Ferry (Bridgeport) as headquarters, and acting 
as physician and surgeon to the garrison. For these and other 




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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 65 



patriotic services the corporation of Philadelphia presented him a 
vote of thanks and a medal. 

In 1757, Mercer was in command of the militia stationed at 
Shippensbiirg, Pennsylvania, being appointed major in December, 
'757' ^^'fh command of all Provincial forces stationed west of the 
Susquehanna. In 1758 Major Mercer was in command of a portion 
of the Forbes expedition against Fort DuQuesne. It was during this 
period that he met Colonel George Washington, whose military 
fame had spread beyond the confines of the Great Northern Neck of 
Virginia. Between the two men a friendship was established that led 
Mercer to remove from Pennsylvania to Virginia, taking up his 
residence in Fredericksburg, famed as the home of Washington's 
mother. There General Mercer attended meetings of Lodge No. 4, 
Free and Accepted Masons, of which (ieorge Washington was a 
member. 

1 hroughout the period of constitutional agitation preceding the 
Revolution, Dr. Mercer devoted himself to his practice and to the 
delights of those social relationships for which Fredericksburg was 
and is noted. In 1775, the Royal Governor, Dunmore, at Williams- 
burg, transferred a portion of the colonial store of powder from the 
magazine to the ship "Magdalen." It was this crowning act of 
executive incompetency to deal with local phases of the general revo- 
lutionary problem that led to the organization of the Whig regi- 
ments. September 12, 1775, Mercer was appointed colonel of 
minute-men for the counties of Caroline, Stafford, King CJcorge and 
Spottsylvania. Stimulating the spirit of the Committees of Safety, 
and sustaining the enthusiastic but untrained provincials, Mercer 
wrote to the Virginia Convention: "Hugh Mercer will ser\ e his 
adopted country in the cause of liberty in any rank or station to 
which he may be assigned." At this critical juncture three regiments 
of Virginia provincials were organized, and for the command of the 
first of these Hugh Mercer was defeated by Patrick Henry by one 
vote. Subsequently, Mercer was elected colonel of the third, and at 
Williamsburg drilled the volunteers and levies. 
Nr— ,■> 



66 niOGRAPHlCAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 



A wider field of duty demanded Mercer's services. In recogni- 
tion of his popularity and military skill, on June 5, 1776, the rank of 
brigadier-general in the Continental army was conferred upon the 
gallant Virginian. Within a few weeks General Washington, return- 
ing from Massachusetts to New York, selected General Mercer to 
take command of the troops engaged in the fortification of Paulus 
Hook, now known as the old downtown residence section of Jersey 
City. Besides discharging his duties there, he was placed in com- 
mand of the "Flying Camp" of ten thousand men stationed at and 
near Perth Amboy. Events between the rout of the patriotic army at 
Brooklyn and the retreat through the Jerseys moved rapidly, nor 
can the military details of the crossing of the Delaware and the 
attack upon Trenton be repeated here. Historians have credited 
General Mercer with suggesting the change of Washington's Fabian 
policy, and of his working out the details of the movement that 
altered the fate of an empire. This much is sure, that upon the 
Christmas night of 1776 no one of Washington's galaxy of leaders 
was more trusted than was Mercer, and no one shared greater fruits 
of victory. Upon the recrossing of the Delaware, it was at General 
Mercer's headquarters on the night of January 2, 1777, that the plan 
to break camp and leave the camp fires burning upon the south bank 
of the Assunpink creek was formulated. Thence it was that General 
Mercer went to his doom. The story of the surprise at Princeton 
on the morning of the 3rd, of the clash upon the frost covered 
ground between Mercer's men and the British regiments; of the fight 
about the Clark house; of the peril of Washington; and of Mercer's 
leaping from his horse and rallying his men — have often been told. 
Infuriated by the turn of the fortunes of war. General Mercer, while 
in the very act of leading his men to victory, was attacked by several 
British soldiers. Repeatedly stabbed, he was beaten upon the head 
with the butt ends of muskets, and, refusing to surrender, was left 
for dead. The retreating British soon gave place to the Continental 
soldiers, who tenderly carried their general into the Clark house, 
where he was nursed by the devoted Quaker women of that family. 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 67 



By his side, in attendance, were Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia; 
Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Virginia, and Major George Lewis, 
nephew of General Washington. Lingering in agony for nine days. 
General Hugh Mercer died In the arms of Major Lewis. 

The death of Mercer created a profound impression through- 
out the nation. His body was removed to Philadelphia under mili- 
tary escort, was exposed in state, and it is said thirty thousand people 
attended the funeral. It was upon the south side of Christ Church, 
Philadelphia, that his body, interred with military and civic honors, 
was placed beneath a slab upon which was cut: "In memory of 
Gen'l Hugh Mercer, who fell at Princeton, January 3rd, 1777." 
Moved by a sense of patriotic duty, Congress, upon April 9, 1777, 
directed that monuments be erected to the honor of General Mercer 
at Fredericksburg, and of General Warren at Boston. Upon the 
28th of June, 1902, one hundred and twenty-five years thereafter, 
the Fredericksburg monument was erected, bearing upon its face the 
inscription ordered to be placed by the resolution of 1777. With 
that singular perversity that seems to afflict mankind, a succeeding 
generation refused to permit General Mercer's bones to remain un- 
disturbed. The St. Andrew's Society removed his body to Laurel 
Flill Cemetery, then upon the edge of the city of Philadelphia, and 
Xo\-ember 26, 1 ^^o. dedicated a monument to his memory. Of 
this society General .Mercer was a member, and the monument was 
properly inscribed. 

Besides the name of one of New Jersey's twenty-one counties, 
there are in the State of New Jersey two memorials to Mercer. One 
is the old fort at Red Bank, Gloucester county, where at Fort Mer- 
cer, in 1778, a gallant defense of Philadelphia was matie by Cieneral 
Greene and the navy upon the Delaware. The other memorial is in 
Princeton and consists of a bronze tablet unveiled October i, 1S97, 
the gift of Mercer F.ngine Company, No. 3. 



GARRET AUGUSTUS HOBART 



GARRET AUGUSTUS HOBART, twenty-fourth Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States, was born in Long Branch, New 
Jersey, June 3, 1844, a son of Addison \V. Hobart, who removed 
from New Hampshire to New Jersey and became a teacher, and of 
Sophia Vandeveer, of Long Branch, a woman of French and Dutch 
ancestry. 

He received a common school education, prepared for college 
in a classical institute, and was graduated from Rutgers College in 
1S63. Ambitious to become a lawyer, but without the means of 
study, he engaged in teaching in Marlboro till he had acquired a 
small sum of money, when he went to Paterson and entered the law 
office of Socrates Tuttle, a close personal friend of his father. He 
there applied himself to general study and at the same time special- 
ized in commercial law. In 1866 he was admitted to the bar, and 
in 1869 was made a counsellor-at-law. During his early years in 
Paterson he devoted himself wholly to the practice of his profession. 
His ability and popularity, however, soon brought him into political 
notice, and in 1871 he made his first political and public appearance 
as city counsel of Paterson. He also began to take a special interest 
in political activities, and did much to secure the election of Mr. 
Juttle, his preceptor, to the office of mayor. In 1872 he was elected 
counsel to the Board of Freeholders of Passaic county, and was also 
elected to the State Assembly, receiving for the latter the largest 
Republican majority the county had ever given for that office. He 
was reelected in 1873; was speaker of the House in 1874, when 
only thirty years old; and declined a renomination in 1875 because 
of the pressure of his law business. But a year later his party again 
called him into the field and sent him to the State Senate, where he 
served two terms, and was president of that body in the sessions of 
1881-82. Dinging his service legislative he made hosts of friends. 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 69 



and as speaker and president exhibited remarkable tact and ability 
as a parliamentarian. 

Leaving the Senate, lie ga\e up all aspiration for turther polit- 
ical honors. He had become identified with many and widely diverse 
business interests, which, with his law practice, left him little oppor- 
tunity for other activities. His withdrawal to private life was a 
keen disappointment to the party leaders. .\ny preferment within 
their power could have been his for the asking; but he asked nothing. 
He received the complimentary nomination for United States Sena- 
tor in 1884, when the Democratic majority elected John R. McPher- 
son; he declined a Congressional nomination five times; and twice 
refused assent to the wishes of his party to place him in nomination 
for Governor. Yet, notwithstanding the great pressure of his pri- 
vate responsibilities, he remained active in the councils of his party. 
He was chairman of the Republican State Committee in 1880-90; 
was a delegate to the National Conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884, 
1888, 1892 and 1896; and became a member and vice-chairman of 
the National Executive Committee in 1884. I" '895 he was drawn 
from his retirement to a struggle for the office of Governor. '1 he 
Democratic party had held uninterrupted possession of that office 
for twenty-five years, and considered its possession impregnable. Mr. 
Hobart believed that the Democracy could be attackctl successfully 
with a candidate of unusually strong personality, and suggested his 
friend and neighbor, John W. Griggs, as the most available person. 
His choice met with general approval throughout the State. Mr. 
Cjriggs rccciveei the nomination. Mr. Hobart undertook the per- 
sonal management of the campaign, and diffused his contagious 
enthusiasm to every nook and corner of the State. The stniggle was 
one of the most brilliant, exciting and memorable contests in the 
political history of New Jersey. Mr. Griggs won by a plurality of 
26,900 votes, an astonishing triumph for all concerned. 

This victory achieved, Mr. Hobart turned again to his business 
concerns. But the result of the campaign had an immediate influence 
on the national policy of the party. New Jersey, restored to the 



70 UIOGRAPHICAL E.XCYCLOPEDIA 

group of Republican States, received a heartier consideration from 
the party leaders, and the man who had been most influential in 
bringing about the remarkable change became a factor to be reck- 
oned with. Mr. Hobart's friends realized the opportunity and 
pressed it in all quarters. When the National Republican Conven- 
tion of 1896 convened, it seemed a foregone conclusion that its candi- 
dates would be McKinley and Hobart. The result justified the fore- 
cast, and this ticket carried the election. Mr. Hobart was inaugu- 
rated March 4, i^'97, and from that time till the illness that caused 
his death, at his home in Paterson, November 21, 1899, he was 
probably a more intimate friend and trusted counsellor of the Presi- 
dent than any of his predecessors had been to their chief. As presi- 
dent of the Senate he kept on terms of intimacy and cordiality with 
every member, and his conduct of business from the chair was conspic- 
uous for its orderliness and impartiality. He was highly praised for his 
decisions on mooted questions, some of which involved delicate polit- 
ical and personal points sufficient to tax abilities of the highest order. 

As before mentioned, Mr. Hobart had wide business interests. 
He was president, general manager, or a director in some sixty cor- 
porations, to many of which he had also acted as general counsel. 
Personally he was one of the most approachable of men. He never 
denied himself to visitors, no matter on what errand they came. 
There was no "private" room in his suite of offices in Paterson. He 
was most scrupulous in attending to the requests for information and 
assistance that constantly came to him, and he made it a rule both in 
his political and business life to at least acknowledge the receipt of 
every letter. 

Mr. Hobart married Jennie Tuttle, daughter of his preceptor 
in law, July 21, 1869. Two children were born of this union — 
Garret A. Hobart Jr., who with his mother survived, and Fanny 
Hobart, who died in Italy in 1895. The family occupied a hand- 
some home, "Carroll Hall," in Paterson, and a summer place in 
Long Branch, near which Mr. Hobart was born. On opening Mr. 
Hobart's will it was found that he had bequeathed $5,000 each to 
the five principal charitable institutions of Paterson. 



CORTLANDT PARKER 



CORTLANDT PARKER, lawyer and distinguished citizen, 
sixth child of James and Penelope (Butler) Parker, was born 
in the Parker mansion in Perth Amboy, June 27, 1818. He received 
bis early education in that town, with private instruction in Latin 
and Greek, and in 1832 entered Rutgers College, where he was 
graduated with first honors and as valedictorian of his class, in 1836, 
at the age of eighteen. Among his classmates were Joseph P. Brad- 
ley, afterward Justice of the United States Supreme Court; Fred- 
erick T. Frelinghuysen, who became Attorney-General of New Jer- 
sey, United States Senator, and Secretary of State under President 
Arthur; William A. Newell, elected Governor of New Jersey and 
later appointed Governor of Washington Territory; Henry Wal- 
dron, for many years a member of Congress from Michigan; James 
C. Van Dyke, who served as United States District Attorney for 
Pennsylvania; George W. Coakley, of New York University, and 
others who in after life enjoyed prominence in professional, min- 
isterial, and business pursuits. 

Soon after leaving college, young Parker entered the ofiice of 
Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, of Newark, and upon Mr. Freling- 
huysen's retirement from practice to become chancellor of the New 
York University he continued his professional studies under Amzi 
Armstrong. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in Septem- 
ber, 1839, and as a counsellor three years later, and began his legal 
career in Newark, in association with two of his classmates — Joseph 
P. Bradley and Frederick T. Frelinghuysen. From that time he 
continued in Newark without interruption, as a practicing lawyer. 
At the time of his death in 1907, he was the oldest as well as the 
most distinguished active representative of the bar of New Jersey. 

The son of one of the most notable leaders of political opinion 
in New Jersey during the first half of the nineteenth century, and 



72 niOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

thrown from youth into association with many of the foremost char- 
acters of the day, as well as in friendly rivalry with other young 
men of aspiration and ability, he entered upon active life with high 
personal ideas. In his political affiliations, both from the early influ- 
ences by which he was surrounded and from his own studies and 
reflections, he followed the course pursued by his father. The latter 
had in youth espoused the doctrines of Hamilton and the other great 
Federalist fathers of the constitution, expressed in the tenets of the 
Federalist party and later maintained by the Whigs, and based upon 
the fundamental ideas of the supremacy of the national government 
and inviolability of the national union, encouragement to manufac- 
tures, a protective tariff, and the subordination of local or schismatic 
preferences or tendencies in the interest of a solid union and a broad 
development. 

His first presidential vote was cast in the memorable campaign 
of 1S40, when General William H. Harrison was elected, and in 
this contest he took part with enthusiasm, delivering political speeches 
and writing to the press upon the issues involved. In 1844, when 
Clav and Frelinghuysen were the Whig nominees for president and 
vice-president, he was also active. He was author of the campaign 
"Life of Frelinghuysen," which still remains the best character sketch 
of that statesman. The commanding question was concerning the 
admission of Texas as a State, and consequent enlargement of the 
slave-holding area. With a deep conviction of the error and danger 
of such a course, and a clear foresight of the future, he opposed it 
in speeches and articles. 

In all the succession of political events. Mr. Parker was nn ad- 
vocate of the principles which became the basis of the new Repub- 
lican party, and he was one of its founders in New Jersey. He was 
chairman of the ratification meeting held in Newark upon the nomi- 
nation of Abraham Lincoln in i860, and from that day until the sur- 
render of Lee at Appomattox he was one of the most pronounced 
and steadfast supporters of the whole policy of preservation of the 
Union and suppression of the rebellion. After the Emancipation 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPKDIA 73 



Proclamation, he took the advanced ground that the only logical end 
of that measure was tlie concession of the ballot to the freedmen. 
He presided at the State convention which first proposed that doc- 
trine in New Jersey, delivering an address that was circulated as a 
campaign document in the ensuing election. Upon the submission 
to the New Jersey Legislature of the proposed Fourteenth Amend- 
ment to the United States Constitution, it was voted down by the 
Democrats in that body, an action which, in the opinion of the 
leaders on both sides, settled the matter so far as New Jersey was 
concerned. But .Mr. Parker took a different view ol the legal aspects 
of the subject, maintaining that the amendment might be submitted 
again and again until adopted. This legal view of the question 
carried such weight that Mr. Parker's party confidently entered upon 
the next electoral contest on the issue thus defined, secured the neces- 
sary majority in the Legislature, and duly ratified the amendment. 
In his subsequent career, throughout all the changing political 
conditions, Mr. Parker maintained the same active and patriotic 
interest, frequently addressing his fellow citizens on questions of the 
day, exercising a valuable influence by his counsels when sought by 
those in responsible position, and contributing to the press many 
papers distinguished for dignity and solidity of treatment and argu- 
ment. Continuously antl intimately identified for sixty-five years 
with politics, and sustaining a reputation of the first order for ability, 
accomplishments, and character, Mr. Parker occupied a unique per- 
sonal position. With the single exception of a local office In his 
county, which, moreover, was strictly in the line of his profession as a 
lawyer, he was never an office-holder; but on the other hand he uni- 
formly declined repeated tenders of high and honorable stations, 
both State and National. In 1S57 he was appointed Prosecutor of 
the Pleas of Essex county by Governor Newell, and for ten years 
continued to serve in that capacity. In the same year his name was 
brought before the Legislature for the position of Chancellor; later 
a [Republican convention nominated him for Congress after he had 
announced that even if nominated he would decline; President Grant 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

requested him to accept a judgeship in the court for settling the Ala- 
bama Claims; President Hayes offered him the ministry to Russia; 
President Arthur tendered him that to Vienna, but all these dignities 
were dechned. In his earlier career he was on two occasions pro- 
posed for Attorney-General of New Jersey, when that honor was 
one not uninviting from his professional point of view, but owing 
probably as much to his reputation for independence of political 
influences and considerations as to any other circumstances he was 
not appointed. He was many times voted for in the Legislature as a 
candidate for the United States Senate. 

Aside from the strict sphere of politics, he served in several 
honorary- positions — notably as a commissioner to settle the disputed 
boundary lines between New Jersey and Delaware, and as a reviser 
of the laws of New Jersey, in conjunction with Chief-Justice Beasley 
and Justice Depue. In the disputed presidential election of 1876 he 
was sent by President Grant to witness the counting of the ballots in 
Louisiana, and was complimented for his fairness by his opponents. 

As an orator, Mr. Parker enjoyed a reputation for force, 
scholarship, and the particular type of eloquence appealing to the 
intelligence of men which well accords with the dignity and strength 
manifested in his public career, his writings, and his well-known in- 
dividual characteristics. In his personality he was remarkable for a 
physical constitution of great vitality, nurtured throughout life by a 
vigorous but orderly regimen; possessed of a commanding figure, and 
to the end of his life as erect as in youth; with a distinction of man- 
ners and address and a nature of warm sensibilities and strong attach- 
ments and sympathies. 

Mr. Parker's published writings on topics of current or general 
interest include the following, among many other papers and ad- 
dresses: "The Moral Guilt of the Rebellion," "Philip Kearny, 
Soldier and Patriot," "Our Triumphs and Our Duties," "New Jer- 
sey; Her Present and Future," "Abraham Lincoln," "The Open 
Bible or Tolerant Christianity," "Alexander Hamilton and William 
Paterson," "The Three Successful Generals of the Army of the 



BlOGKAl'llICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 75 



Potomac: iMcClellan, Mead and Grant," "Justice Joseph P. Brad- 
ley," and "Sir Matthew Hale: The Lawyer's Best Exemplar." 

He held at one time the honorable position of President of the 
American Bar Association. Like his father and grandfather he was 
actively identified with the Protestant Episcopal Church and was a 
lay delegate to many diocesan conventions, which, in their delibera- 
tions, were largely guided by his parliamentan»- knowledge. He re- 
ceived the degree of LL. D. from Rutgers College and Princeton 
L'nl\ersity, both in the same year. He li\ed in Newark, with a sum- 
mer residence in Perth Amboy, his boyhood home. He married 
Elizabeth Wolcott Stites, daughter of Richard Wa\ne and Filiza- 
beth (Cooke) Stites, of Morristown, New Jersey. 



(Oin LAXDT PAHKEH .IK. 



C ORFLAN DT PARKER JR., for more than three decades 
an attorney, actively engaged in the practice of his protession 
in the city of Newark, born August 17, 1S57. son of Hon. Cortlandt 
and Elizabeth W. (Stites) Parker. 

He obtained an excellent education in the Newark .Academy; 
St. Mark's School at Southboro, Massachusetts; Pingry's School at 
I\lizabeth, New Jersey, and Rutgers College, receiving from the 
latter institution the degree of Bachelor of .Arts in 1S78 and that of 
Master of Arts in 1881. He was a student in the office of his father 
and brother, Cortlandt and Richard Wayne Parker, under whose 
excellent teaching he was prepared for entering the Columbian Law 
School, from which he was graduated in 1881. He was admitted 
as an attorney at the New Jersey bar in June, 1881, and as a coun- 
sellor in November, 1885. Locating in Newark, he soon was en- 
trusted with the legal business of a large and influential clientele, and 
is now recognized as one of the Icaiiing lawyers of the Flssex county 
bar. 



JOHN ALBERT BLAIR 



JOHN ALBERT BLAIR, notable as a representative lawyer and 
jurist of New Jersey, being able as a lawyer and distinguished 
as a jurist, was born near Blairstown, New Jersey, July 8, 1842, son 
of John H. Blair and Mary Angle, and grandson of William Blair 
and Rachel Brands, of Knowlton township, Warren county, New 
Jersey, being a descendant of one of the most distinguished families 
of his State. He traces his ancestry back to the noted Blair family 
of Blair-Athol, Perthshire, Scotland, representatives of which came 
to America as early as 1720, settling in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. 

John Albert Blair received his earlier education in the public 
schools of his native place, and was prepared for college at the 
Blairstown Presbyterian Academy. Entering the College of New 
Jersev at Princeton, he was graduated from that institution in 1866 
with honors, afterwards becoming a law student in the office of Hon. 
Jehiel G. Shipman, at Belvidere, New Jersey. He was admitted to 
the New Jersev bar as an attorney at the June term, 1869, and as 
a counsellor in June, i 872. It was in January, i 870, that he located 
m Jersey City, there forming a law partnership with Stephen B. 
Ransom, an old and distinguished lawyer in that city. He was not 
long in winning a reputation for himself as an able and conscientious 
lawyer, clear and discriminating in his judgment, and possessed of 
scholarly attainments of a high order. An eloquent speaker, force- 
ful in argument, his occasional public addresses are distinguished by 
a high degree of literary merit, while his legal efforts have been 
marked by profound knowledge of the law and a convincing force. 
On the passage of the law creating District Courts in Jersey City in 
1877, Governor Bedle appointed Mr. Blair and Hon. Bennington 
F. Randolph as the first judges to fill the positions thus provided for. 
Judge Blair proved himself in every way worthy of the dignity con- 



BIOGKAI'JllCAL KXCYCLOPEDIA 77 



1 erred. As a judge he was upright, fair and impartial, just in his 
decisions and learned in the law. He retired from the bench with 
the respect and confidence of both bar and public, and in May, 1885, 
was appointed Corporation Counsel for the city of Jersey City, in 
which capacity his services were of great public value. He retained 
the office in question until 1889, when he resigned. He was named 
again for the same responsible position in 1894, accepted it, and 
served with credit until April i, 1898, when he resigned to accept the 
appointment of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, General 
Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Court of the county of 1 ludson, being 
named for the bench by Ciovernor (iriggs just before the latter be- 
came Attorney-Clencral in the cabinet of President McKinley. Since 
that time Judge Blair has continued to preside o\ er the couits re- 
ferred to and has added fresh prestige to his name as a jurist of the 
fullest capacity. His opinions are models in their way and on appeal 
are generally upheld by the higher tribunals. 

Judge Blair is a Republican in his political principles. While 
prominent and active in party affairs, his name being frequently men- 
tioned in connection with some of the most honorable positions in the 
gift of the people, Judge Blair has never been an office-seeker. He 
has been a regular attendant of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Jersey City for years, and personally, as professionally, is a man of 
high and unsullied character. He is popular in social life, and is a 
leading member of the Palma Club, as well as one of the organizers 
of the Union League Club, of Jersey City, of which body he was 
president for a number of years. A lover of books, he has collected 
a large and remarkably fine library, in which he finds unfailing de- 
light. I le is cultured to an exceptional degree, broad in mind, cour- 
teous in manner, and possessed of wiile general knowledge. 



AARON E. BALLARD 



THE REV. A. E. BALLARD, D. D., vice-president of the 
Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association since 1872, and 
troni that time until the present its acti\e manager, and also presi- 
dent of the Pitman Grove Camp Meeting Association, traces his 
ancestry to an English family (probably from Wales) which came 
to America in the year 1600, and settled in New England, whence 
Its members dispersed to the west and south. The immediate branch 
from which Dr. Ballard descends located in Springfield, New Jersey. 
His paternal grandfather was a captain in the Continental army 
during the Revolutionary War, and several of his great-uncles 
fought during the same struggle, either as officers or privates. The 
father of Dr. Ballard, Jeremiah Ballard, removed to Bloomfield, 
and there the son v.as boi'ii. 

The education of young Ballard was a matter of personal 
acquirement in greater part, his attendance at school being limited 
to a few quarters during his early childhood. When he was between 
ten and eleven years of age he began to earn his own living, engag- 
ing in mechanical pursuits, in which he continued until twenty-four 
years of age, when he entered the ministry of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. In his first ministerial appointment he was entrusted 
with the oversight of a charge, instead of being appointed a junior 
preacher under the superintendency of an older minister. His sec- 
ond charge was in a village where the church was feeble and little 
regarded. Against the remonstrance of the official board he held a 
re\ival service, which continued without result for several weeks, 
when, as if through a pentecostal visitation, a general religious feel- 
ing became manifested and proved contagious. In this some eighty 
souls were recci\ed into membership with the church, affording it a 
position of commanding and enduring influence. In his next charge 
the work was light, and he was enabled to devote the greater part of 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 79 



one year to those studies which he was so ambitious of following, and 
for which he had theretofore been unable to tind time. 

At this period it was the policy of the church to station unmar- 
ried ministers for but one year in a place, and he was remo\ed to a 
church of eighty members, a number which he reduced to fifty-six by 
the exclusion of those whose religious life did not comport with their 
profession. But ahnost immediately he restored the church to about 
its original number of members by the reception of a new class of 
worthy converts. He was next assigned to a country town, then the 
acme of honor for a young minister, and here his labors were rewarded 
with a fair measure of success. It may be notetl, incidentally, tii:it he 
here ga\e display of his athletic powers by accomplishing the climb- 
ing of the Saw Kill Falls. In his next charge, also in a country town, 
he was allowed to remain two years. During this time he married, 
and had for bis iirst home one room (with a pantry) and he has fre- 
quently said in his later years that in this humble (domicile were passed 
some of the happiest days of his life. He was next sent to a town of 
considerable importance, but where the church membership was small, 
the greater number of the people poor, and the church edifice encum- 
bered with a debt which exceeded its value. I le devoted himself to 
the work of li(]uiilation. and finally succeeded, but only at tin- cost ot 
great self-sacrifice, he devoting to the purpose one-third of the $300 
salary allowed him. His next charge was in one of the great edu- 
cational centers, where overwork and close application to his studies 
undermined his health and necessitated his retirement from pastoral 
labor. 

I'm- a year following he ser\ed as secretary of the American 
and Foreign Christian Union for the Middle States — a position in 
which his labors were arduous, but different in character, and dur- 
ing this time regained his health. He was then appointed to one of 
the largest churches in the conference, with which his effort was abun- 
dantly successful in numerous accessions to membership and in secur- 
ing the erection of a church edifice in an outlying village. He was 
next appointed to a charge in the city where he had passed his early 



80 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

boyhood, and he made the latter fact the reason for voicing a protest 
against his appointment — the only objection he ever raised against 
an assignment. His superior insisted, however, and he entered upon 
his work, and during the two years of his pastorate succeeded in com- 
pleting the unfinished church edifice and in liquidating the heavy debt 
with which it was burdened. Upon the conclusion of this successful 
woris. he was appointed to a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but 
the serious illness of his wife forbade his going to such a distance, and 
he was assigned to a charge in southern New Jersey. In his new field 
he was eminently successful, and added largely to the church mem- 
bership. But his experiences in that field were personally saddening, 
for he found himself in a malarial region, unaware of its dangers 
until his two little boys had died. After a year's pastorate in an edu- 
cational center, where the church membership was largely increased, 
he was appointed to a village station, where it was only possible to 
keep it from being irretrievably overwhelmed by its debt embarrass- 
ment. 

The early days of the Civil War found Dr. Ballard in the pas- 
torate of a strong church in a large city. Firm in his devotion to the 
Union, he constantly preached loyalty to the government, but, by 
invariable courtesy and consideration for others personally, he held 
his congregation together, although there were among his parishion- 
ers many Border State people whose sympathies were antagonistic 
to his own. His experiences were similar In the next church to which 
he was appointed. After this he was located with a church which 
had been deprived of a large portion of its membership for the for- 
mation of another, but he was successful in bringing it up to its full 
former standard. For eight years following he served as presiding 
elder, having in charge one hundred churches, necessitating incessant 
travel and several discourses each week, to which was added the con- 
stant intercourse with the various pastors and official boards in the 
settlement of difficulties and the devising of ways and means looking 
to greater efficiency. In iSqi; the Doctorate of Divinity was con- 
ferred upon him by VVarrenville College. He was elected a mem- 



BIOGRAPHICAL iiXCYCLOPEDIA 81 

ber ot the general conference of his church. For some years there- 
after Dr. Ballard served various charges, his work habitually result- 
ing in numerous accessions to church membership. Following this, 
for a period of fourteen years, as president of the Church Temper- 
ance Commission, he devoted his efforts to temperance work, seek- 
ing the suppression of the saloon. He afterward served pastoral 
terms at Pitman Grove, Sea Isle City and Merchantville. 

In 1872 Dr. Ballard was called, by the death of Dr. Stokes, to 
a circuitous charge in the Grove Camp Meeting Association, and in 
this position he has continued to ser\-e to the present time, the duties 
of the management largely devohing upon him. His labors in this 
position have been incessant and arduous, and he has his share in the 
great success which has attended the enterprise. In 1895 the Doc- 
torate of Divinity was conferred upon him by Harriman College. 

NC-« 



JONATHAN DAYTON 



THE distinguished career of Jonathan Dayton, soldier and 
statesman, is one of the many in the Revolutionary period 
which illustrates with what success civilians, without special train- 
ing of any kind, can enter the acti\'ities of public life and take 
part in the affairs of state, or even such a specialized calling as the 
art of war. In the statement of this proposition there must not be 
forgotten the very essential factor of the ci\"ilian having brains, as 
in the case of Jonathan Dayton. 

Born October i6, 1760, he had graduated from the College of 
New Jersey before he was sixteen years of age, and the same year, 
1776, entered the Continental army as paymaster of the Third Bat- 
talion of New Jersey, of which his father was commander. P>om 
this time on his experiences were of the most varied sort; he was 
moved about hither and thither and saw all sorts of campaigning, 
in which way he gained a profound insight into military affairs. He 
was soon placed on the staff of General Maxwell, commanding the 
New Jersey Brigade, and a little later was commissioned as major 
and aide-de-camp on General Sullivan's staff, going with that officer 
on his campaign against the western Indians. In 1780 he rejoined 
the New Jersey Brigade, Third Regiment, with a captain's commis- 
sion, but the same year was captured, with his uncle. General Mat- 
thias Ogden, by the British, at Elizabeth. He was fortunate in 
being soon exchanged, whereupon he joined the First New Jersey 
Regiment. In 1781 the New Jersey Brigade was engaged in the 
siege of Yorktown, and Dayton was given a command under Gen- 
eral Lafayette. In this capacity he aided his General in the storming 
of a redoubt, in which affair he behaved with conspicuous bravery, 
and shortly after was present at the surrender of Cornwallis, Octo- 
ber 19, 178 1. During what remained of the war, he continued to 
distinguish himself, and took part in the repulse of the British attack 



ItJOGRAPHlCAL KXCVCLOPEDIA 83 

on Elizabeth, whereby tlie enemy were forced to retire from Staten 
Island. At the close ot the war he became one of the founders and 
original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, which numbered so 
many famous names in its roster. 

Although at the close of the war Dayton was a mere youth, and 
in 1787 was still a very young man, he had so impressed the people 
of New Jersey with his courage and ability that in that year they 
selected him as one of their representatives to the Constitutional Con- 
vention about to meet in Philailelphia. Thither went Dayton and, 
despite his }outh, took an active part in the deliberations, although 
he was not of precisely the same mind as his great confrere, William 
Paterson. When at length that monumental instrument was evolved, 
Dayton affixed his signature with the rest, being one of the youngest 
if not the very youngest man who so distinguished himself. He was 
repeatedly elected to the New Jersey Legislature, and in 1790, made 
Speaker of the House. He seemed to possess a sort of genius for 
parliamentary procedure, for after being elected representative to 
Congress in 1 79 i he was four years later chosen Speaker of the 
United States House of Representatives, an office to which he was^ 
returned in i 797 by a vote of seventy-eight to two. It was during the 
following year that the unfortunate contretemps with P'rance took 
place which led to some talk of war sufficient to cause the government 
to begin preparations. In this connection. President Atiams, recall- 
ing Dayton's distinguished ability during the Revolution, commis- 
sioned him a brigadier-general in the regular army. The difficulty, 
however, happily passed, and in 1799 Dayton was elected United 
States Senator from his State, occupying this position until 1805. 
The senatorship marked the zenith of a career which but for an un- 
fortunate circumstance, might have gone, no one can sav, how much 
further. 

During his chililhood and youth Dayton knew and conceixcil a 
strong affection for .Aaron Burr, an afiection to which was added in 
manhood a lively admiration for Burr's undoubted powers. So 
strong were his feelings that be could never be brought to doubt his 



84 LIIOGKAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

friend's intentions, and ga\e evidence of this trust in many positive 
ways, lending him considerable sums of money, and even challenging 
DeWitt Clinton to a duel because of a fancied wrong done to Burr. 
This matter was arranged without a meeting. When at last Burr's 
downfall came, it involved many of his friends, though entirely inno- 
cent of his questionable designs, and among this number was Dayton. 
Nothing, indeed, was brought out at Burr's trial which in any way 
compromised either his actions or intentions, but his mere association 
with the fallen one was enough to destroy his standing in the popular 
opinion. This, together with the defeat of the Federal party and the 
accession to the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, effectually put an 
end to Dayton's hopes of political preferment, nor did he struggle 
against his fate. New Jersey did not, indeed, lose faith in him, and 
returned him for a number of terms to the United States Senate, but 
eventually he retired from public life, and spent his last years at 
home in the enjoyment of his considerable fortune. He was part 
owner of large tracts of land in Ohio, and it was in honor of his 
family that the town of Dayton, Ohio, was named. On the occasion 
of the Marquis de Lafayette's visit to the United States in 1824, 
Dayton received him and entertained him as his guest, taking part in 
many of the festivities given in the great Frenchman's honor. These 
proved to be his last public occasions, as he died October 9 of the 
same year. 

Dayton was a man of impressive appearance and manners; a 
gentleman of the old school, who retained in his household and per- 
sonal dress and behavior, the formality of the world of Washington 
and Franklin. He was familiarly nicknamed "the last of the cocked 
hats." 





^^^-i-^/x/ 




(P^H 






WOOO) 

,.;i)W Wi -nd President, 

was born - , 1856, son 



Jthcr 



days were 
la, and Wil- 
iZe with pri- 



lon in his 



//' y 



■ I- '' ■ / 



>yO()DR()W WIT.SON 



WOODROVV WILSON, educator, Governor, and President, 
was born at Staunton, Virginia, December 28, 1856, son 
of Rev. Joseph R. Wilson and Jessie Woodrow Wilson, the former 
a distinguished scholar and clergyman of the Presbyterian Church 
of the South. His father was a native of Ohio, and his mother 
of Scotland, and his ancestry, on both sides, is Scotch-Irish. His 
intellectuality and high scholarship are an inheritance from the fam- 
ilies of both father and mother. The Woodrow family was a dis- 
tinguished one and stood high in the literary and church life of 
Scotland. Both the Wilson and Woodrow families have always 
been students. At the call of the church, the family of Governor 
Wilson moved south long before the war, and during that great 
struggle resided at Augusta, Georgia. His boyhood days were 
spent at the latter place and at Columbia, South Carolina, and Wil- 
mington, North Carolina, where he prepared for college with pri- 
vate tutors and at the schools at these places. His real educator, 
however, was his father, who beside being a great pulpit orator, was 
a scholar of high order, and for some years professor in the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina, and closed his career 
as professor in the Southwestern Theological Seminary at Clarks- 
ville. Tennessee. 

Governor Wilson was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, 
and many w ere the privations he and his people were called upon to 
eniiure during the Civil War, part of which raged around their 
home. That these days made their impress upon his youthful mind 
is certain, for this is shown in the intense human sympathy which is 
the gift of his manhood and one of his strongest characteristics. 

In 1874 he entered the freshman class at Davidson College, 
North Carolina, remained one year, and in the fall of 1875 he 
entered the freshman class at Princeton College, graduating in the 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

class of 1879. In college he was a hard worker, studious, and an 
omnivorous reader, and was especially distinguished for his ora- 
torical and literary ability, and yet was not known as a "poler" or a 
high honor man. Early he gave evidence of the oratorical gift which 
is his, and in which he has trained on to his present perfection of style 
and charm. His student life was that of the average boy. Athletics 
interested him and he played all the games, baseball, football and 
the rest. He was full of the genial charm, warm-heartedness and 
sporting blood of his southern forbears, and was deservedly popular 
among his fellows. 

Upon his graduation from Princeton University, in 1879, he 
entered the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, "the 
nursery of Presidents," as a law student, and graduated in 1S81. 
For the two years that followed, he practiced law at Atlanta, 
Georgia, and in that time found that while the principles of the law 
and its study interested him, the practical business side of it did not. 
This may be said to have been the turning point in his career and 
decided his future sphere of work. 

Briefly, his career by years is as follows: 1883 to 1885, gradu- 
ate work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, in 
political economy and history. 1885 to 1888, Professor of History 
and Political Economy at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, a 
famous school for the higher education of young ladies. 1888 to 
1890, professor in the same branches of science at Wesleyan Univ^er- 
sity. Now begins his career in Princeton University. In June, 1890, 
he was elected Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy, 
and entered upon his duties in the September following. In 1895 
the department was divided and he was assigned to the chair of juris- 
prudence. In 1897, as the result of a large gift by Mr. Cyrus H. 
McCormick, of Chicago, of the class of 1879, he was promoted to 
the McCormick Professorship of Jurisprudence and Politics. In 
1902 he was elected president of the University, resigning both that 
office and his professorship in October, 19 10, immediately after his 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 87 

nomination for the office of Governor of New Jersey. He was 
elected Governor in 1910, and President in 19 12. 

Mr. Wilson is famous not only as an orator, educator and col- 
lege president, but also in the broad field of literature. His pub- 
lished works show the trend of his mind and culture, and are recog- 
nized standards on the subjects of which they treat. They arc as 
follows: "Congressional Government," 1885; "The State — Ele- 
ments of Historical and Practical Politics," 1889; "Division and 
Reunion," 1893; "An Old .Master, and Other Political Essays," 
1893; "Life of George Washington," 1896; "History of the Amer- 
ican People," 1902; "Constitutional Government in the United 
States," 1908. 

His career may be summarized as a steady, strong, uninter- 
rupted growth, day by day, and year by year. While a student at 
the Johns Hopkins University, his first book, "Congressional Gov- 
ernment," made its appearance and attracted great attention in this 
and many other countries. It gave a clear indication of what sort of 
a man he was to be. It is a study of the United States Constitution, 
not, however, as a written document, but in its practical application 
to the problems of government, showing clearly the discrepancies be- 
tween the theories of the Constitution and the practice of it in Con- 
gress. The theories of the Constitution are right, but the practical 
developments of modern government under them are sometimes 
wrong. The book shows Ciovernor Wilson to be thoroughly consti- 
tutional in his views, but it is plain he does not care for them as mere 
theories, but rather for their historical and practical development. 
Since this book appeared he has gone on and made a deep and ex- 
haustive study of .American history and institutions, and, as a result, 
he does not believe that any pure revival of old Democratic policies 
is what the country and the people need. New ages produce new 
conditions and new problems, which need to be solved for the gener- 
ation to which they belong, and his historical study makes him believe 
that the American Constitution was so wisely made that it is suffi- 
ciently elastic to meet any new problems that may arise among a 



88 niOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

really self-governed people, and his strongest desire is to see that we 
remain a really self-governed people through wise leadership. He 
does not believe that anything has gone wrong with American insti- 
tutions, or with the right intentions of the great body of the Amer- 
ican people, but he does believe that recent economic and social 
changes have made possible some very bad leadership. These he is 
after, and proposes to combat with all his force. During his entire 
career as a teacher, he has grown more and more insistent on the 
idea that the main business of American schools and colleges is to 
prepare pupils and students for good citizenship and conscientious 
leadership. 

As an author, his works are characterized by strong, sound 
scholarship, which ignores all irrelevant details and goes directly to 
the heart of the matter. In his younger days he was a very careful 
student of literary style, and all his books are distinctive in this. 
Literature, with him, was a means to an end, and not an end in itself. 
A great deal has been said and written of the "scholar in politics" — 
he may now be said to be "the literary man in politics." 

Mr. Wilson married, June 24, 1885, Ellen Louise Axsen, a 
charming Southern lady, of a distinguished family of Savannah, 
Georgia. Mrs. Wilson has a distinct claim on New Jersey, in that 
she is the direct descendant of the southern branch of the Fitz Ran- 
dolph family, of New Jersey, the family who gave a portion of the 
land upon which Princeton University now stands. Mrs. Wilson is 
an artist of merit, and three charming daughters have blessed her 
union with the Governor — Margaret, Jessie Woodrow, and Eleanor 
Randolph, who have inherited, each in her way, the talents of their 
parents. 



JAMES SCHUKEMAN 



THE story of Senator James Schiireman reads, to him whose 
lot has fallen upon quieter times, like a page of romance, and 
he is prone to turn from the perusal back to the prosaic facts of 
everyday experience with a feeling very like envy for the brave old 
times, the stirring scenes and hairbreadth adventures, there recorded. 
It is well to remember, however, that even the mosi romantic epi- 
sodes, translated into the terms of actuality, have for the actor much 
of the prosaic quality we dislike, that like mountains, appearing soft 
and blue in the distance, they often take on the most harsh and 
inhospitable character when close at hand, and that to poor Schure- 
man, languishin;^ in the British prison in New York and only saved 
from actual starvation by the pity of a stranger, the experience must 
ha\e seemed bitter and sordid indeed. 

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in pre-Revolutionary 
times, his youth fell upon those days when popular feeling was grow- 
ing more and more intense, preparatory to breaking out into the great 
flame of indignation which wrought such momentous changes in the 
history of the world. It is difficult for us to imagine how such a uni- 
versal wa\e of feeling operated upon the minds and imaginations of 
men, particularly in the case of ardent natures such as Schureman's. 
This may well be illustrated by a story told of him on the eve of 
hostilities. He was, it seems, a private in a company of militia which 
had been formed in his neighborhood, and which in that crisis had 
been called upon to enlist. On this occasion their captain addressed 
them urging all to join the Continental army then in formation, but 
for some cause the spirit of fear possessed them, and not one could 
be induced to volunteer, observing which, young Schureman started 
from the ranks and addressed his fellows in such moving and im- 
passioned terms that a sudden reaction took place, the majority at 
once pledged themselves for the war, and a company was formed on 



90 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the spot, which was sent to Long Island, where it did effective service 
against the enemy. Some time later Schureman, while near his 
native town, New Brunswick, was captured by a party of British sol- 
diers and confined temporarily in the guard house near the town. 
Here his misfortune was mitigated somewhat by the kindly interest 
of Mrs. Van Deusen, who supplied him with wholesome and nutri- 
tious food instead of the usual poor fare of the patriot prisoners. 
At length he was transferred with one (jeorge Thompson, a friend 
and the constant companion of his captivity, to the prison at New 
York. It seemed as though Providence were looking out for the 
welfare of the young prisoners of war, for by some means they were 
enabled to engage the sympathies of one Philip Kissack, a Tory, 
who supplied them with money with which to purchase food, and 
thus saved them from the most extreme privations, if not from 
starvation itself. The two were not, however, content merely to 
supply their immediate physical needs, but laid their plans carefully 
to escape. At length, though whether it was with the same Tory 
money is not known, they were able to purchase some liquor which 
they offered as a gift to their guards, whom they had already bribed 
to give them the freedom of the prison yard. With the liquor they 
mixed a quantity of laudanum and, when this had taken effect, they 
mined beneath the prison wall and escaped to the upper part of the 
city. After numerous difficulties, they managed to secure a small 
fishing boat and a single oar, with which they crossed the Hudson 
river and laboriously made their way to Morristown, where they 
were welcomed by the members of their company. 

Schureman was a man of parts, and his qualities Included states- 
manship as well as those of a soldier. He was member of the Con- 
tinental Congress in 1786-87, and represented New Jersey in the 
lower House of the United States Congress in 1789-91. In 1797 
the Legislature of the State sent him to the Senate, in which he held 
his seat for two years. He afterwards became mayor of New Bruns- 
wick, and still later was again elected to the House of Representa- 
tives, 1 8 13-1 i;. He died in New Brunswick, January 23, 1824. 



AARON KITCHEL 



SIAATOR AAKUN KM CllIM , Patriot and Senator, was bom 
in Hanover, New Jersey, in 1744, and his education ended 
with the common school, lie became a blacksmith, and was one of 
those sturdy artisans whose unswerving devotion to the ideal of 
human rights was so large a factor in the success of the Revolution. 
It was not long after the close of the war that his many friends pro- 
posetl to honor him for his patriotism and ile\<)tion to their cause, 
and he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, 
in the second, third, fourth and sixth Congresses. In 1805 he was 
elected to succeed so tiistinguished a man as Jonathan Dayton as 
United States Senator from New Jersey, and this office he held until 
his resignation in 1809. Mr. Kitchel was a member of the New 
Jersey State Legislature, and served in the Electoral College on the 
occasion of the election of Monroe and Tompkins in i 8 i 7. He died 
in Hanover, New Jersey, June 25, 1820. 

It is not to be wondered at that men of Kitchel's type were 
ranged on the Democratic side in politics. It was their possession 
of power that 1 lamilton and his fellows mistnisted, and Jefferson 
championed so effectively. Kitchel himself was a Democrat, and 
representatixe of the great mass of people upon whose favor the 
power of Jefferson rested. It is noteworthy that the displacing of 
the Federalists by the Democrats in New Jersey's representation in 
the Senate occurred at the election of Kitchel to that office to replace 
Dayton, and the contrast bet\veen the two men was perfectly typical 
of the change that was taking place. Dayton was the aristocrat by 
birth, training and inclination, formal in manner, known popularly 
as "the last of the cocked hats." Kitchel, on the contrary, was a 
man of the people. 



PHILIi* KEARNY 



PHILIP KEARNY, a distinguished soldier, was born in New 
York City, June i, 1814, son of Philip and Susan (Watts) 
Kearny. Me was prepared for college at U fiord's school, New 
York; at Round Hill school, Northampton, Massachusetts, and at 
Philipstown school, Cold Spring, New York; graduated from Co- 
lumbia College in 1833. He accompanied his cousin and future 
biographer, J. Watts de Peyster, to Europe in 1834, and while 
there was especially impressed by the manoeuvring of the armies. 
On his return he entered the law office of Peter Augustus Jay, but 
left on the death of his grandfather, John Watts, September 3, 
1836, from whom he inherited property valued at $1,000,000. He 
was commissioned second lieutenant in the First United States 
Dragofms, commanded by his uncle, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny, 
March 8, 1837. He served on frontier duty, a part of the time on 
the staft' of General Henry Atkinson. With Lieutenants William 
Eustis and Henry S. Turney, he was sent by the War Department 
to study cavalry tactics at the Royal Cavalry School, Saumur, France. 
Kearny was made an honorary' aide-de-camp to the Duke of Orleans, 
in Algiers, and witnessed several notable exploits while attached to 
the Chasseurs d'Afrique in the campaign against Abd-el-Kader. Re- 
turning home, he was made aide-de-camp to General Alexander 
Macomb, commander-in-chief of the United States army, and to his 
successor. General Winfield Scott, 1840-44. He accompanied the 
expedition through South Pass, 1844-46, and resigned from the 
army in the latter year. With the outbreak of the Mexican war, he 
was reinstated and recruited his company at Springfield, Illinois, 
where he was assisted by Abraham Lincoln. Purchasing horses 
which he equipped at his own expense, he transported his company 
to New Orleans, but was not despatched to Mexico until October, 
1846. He joined General Taylor after the capture of Monterey, 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEUIA 93 



and was commissioned captain in December, 1 846. When General 
Scott landed at \ era Cruz, Captain Kearny's troop was detailed as 
bodyguard to the general. Kearny distinguished himself at Con- 
treras and Churubusco, ami in the latter engagement lost his left 
arm in a charge. He was bre\etted major for his gallantry in this 
affair, and on his return, the Lnion Club if New York City pre- 
sented him with a splendid sword. He was stationed in New York 
on recruiting service, i 848-50: and in 1851 engaged in the campaign 
against the Rogue River Indians in California, commanding two 
companies of dragoons. He resigned in 1 85 i , in order to make a tour 
of the world, and sailed by way of the Sandwich Islands to China, 
the East Indies, Egypt, and the Mediterranean. On his return to 
the United States he settled on and beautified his estate, "Belle 
Gro\e," near Newark. He resided in France, 1859-60; in 1859 
rejoined the First Chasseurs d'Afri(iue at Alexandria, and was 
attached to the cavalry of the guard, under Napnli-on 111. in the war 
in Italy, being present on the fieUi of Solferino, where his sen'ices 
were rewarded by the decoration of the cross of the Legion of Honor 
for the second time, he being the first American thus honored for 
military service. 

In 1 86 1 he oHered his senices to the United States and to his 
native State, but without success. He then entered the volunteer 
service as commander of the Mrst New Jersey Brigade, composed 
of the First, Second antl 'Fhini Regiments. He was commissioned 
by President Lincoln, brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from 
May 17, 1 86 1. He encamped his brigade a few miles west from 
Alexandria, Virginia. His were the first troops to occupy Manassas. 
McClellan tendered him the command of Sumner's division, but he 
ilccllned because his own brigade could not be mailc part of his com- 
mand. On May 2, 1862, he was given command of the Third 
Division of the Thinl Corps. He took part in the battle of Wil- 
liamsburg, reinforcing Hooker's division, and making Williamsburg 
a victory for the Federal army. He was promoted major-general 
of volunteers, to date from July 4, 1862. At Fair Oaks he directed 



94 I'.IOCRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the officers of the 1 hird Division to wear a "red patch" on their 
caps, that they could be readily known in battle, and this led to the 
entire division using the diamond-shaped badge, and which led to the 
general adoption of corps badges. Kearny's division joined General 
Pope's Army of Virginia on August 3, 1862, and took part in the 
Second Battle of Bull Run. On September ist, during a severe 
storm, while General Kearny was reconnoitring, he inadvertently 
rode within the enemy's line. Seeing his mistake, he prostrated his 
body on his horse's side, but received a shot in the spine which killed 
him instantly. General Lee returned the body of General Kearny 
under a flag of truce, with horse, arms and equipment, after Generals 
Jackson, Ewell and other general officers of the Confederate army 
had reverently escorted the body, preceded by a regimental band, to 
General Lee's headquarters. After his death the citizens of New 
Jersey erected a statute to the memory of Major-General Philip 
Kearny in the City Park, Newark. His cousin. General John Watts 
de Peyster, prepared an exhaustive biography entitled: "Personal 
and Military History of Philip Kearny, Major-General, United 
States Volunteers" ( 1869). 



J A M KS J EFFEI{ S( ) N \M LS( )N 



JAMES JEFFERSON WILSON, Senator, was a member of the 
new party which under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson had 
replaced the Federalists in the control of affairs and introduced a 
new set of men and opinions into the political arena. Wilson him- 
self had tallen upon the palmy days of Hemocratic power, when 
Jefferson's principles had been hailed as the true American ideal. 
New Jersey had, indeed, been strongly Democratic from the begin- 
ning, and her great Governor, William Paterson, might almost be 
called Jefferson's predecessor in the inHucnce he exerted upon Amer- 
ican institutions, more especially the Constitution, while the latter 
statesman was in France. Hut despite this tendency on the part of 
New Jersey, the brilliancy and the eminent services rendered by 
some of her great Federalist leaders had caused her to send them to 
represent her in the Senate of the United States, even while her 
representatives in the lower house were of the opposite persuasion. 
In Wilson's time, however, the whole country as well as the smaller 
states had subscribetl to the doctrines of the new party, and it was as 
a member of this ascendant power that his career was decided. 

.Mr. Wilson was born in Essex county, in 1775, and received a 
common school education. He was made the clerk of the State 
Legislature, in which he served, and in 1809 was sent by his county 
to the House of Representatives, where he remained two years. He 
served during the War of 1 8 i 2 on the New Jersey coast as captain 
of infantry, and was Adjutant-General of the State from 18 10 to 
181 2, and again in 1814. In i 8 15 he was elected by the State Legis- 
lature to the United States Senate to succeed the Hon. John Lam- 
bert, and this office he filled until 1821. The following year he was 
again sent to the House of Representatives, and was later appointed 
by President Monroe to be the postmaster at Trenton, New Jersey. 
Wilson was an ardent Democrat, and became the editor of "The 
True American," of Trenton, a paper devoted to the Democratic 
cause. He died July 28, 1824. 



GARRET DORSET WALL 



GARRET DORSET WALL, lawyer and statesman, enjoys the 
distinction of being the only man who, being duly elected to 
the governorship of New Jersey, declined that honor. His rise to 
the position of power and influence which he occupied was made in 
the face of many difficulties and obstacles, but he remained kindly 
and affable and singularly free from the party bitterness which was 
not uncommon in that day. 

Ihe Wall family were of pure English stock, a member emi- 
grating from England about the middle of the seventeenth century. 
This Walter Wall originally came to Massachusetts, but followed a 
course quite common to the settlers of that time, removing first to 
Long Island and finally to New Jersey, where he took up his abode 
in 1657, in Monmouth county. Here, in the township of iVIiddle- 
town. Garret Dorset Wall was born, in 1783, the son of James 
Wall, a Revolutionary officer who had conducted himself with signal 
bravery in the battle of Monmouth, and personally captured a 
British officer. Garret was the fourth of six children, and only nine 
years of age when his father died, leaving his family with only the 
most slender means of support. An uncle, Dr. John G. Wall, of 
Woodbridge, came to the rescue and took the boy to live with him, 
and here he remained and received an excellent education as far as 
it went, until his uncle's death, when he was fifteen years old. 
Young Garret had now to shift for himself, and at that early age 
went to Trenton and took up the study of the law in the office of 
General Jonathan Rhea, whose daughter he eventually married. 
Rhea, who was clerk of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, took an 
interest in the youth, and besides allowing him to read law in his 
office, employed him also, thus enabling him to make enough to sup- 
port life and continue his studies. At twenty-one he was admitted 
to the bar and began practice at Trenton. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 97 

In the building up of a law business, Wall had many personal 
qualities of value; his manners were delightful and courtly, his 
appearance impressive and distinguished, so that his effect upon his 
clients was winning in the extreme, and men found it a pleasure to do 
business with him. He had one great difficulty to contend with, 
however. Of a most diffident character, he found the greatest diffi- 
culty in pleading, his speech halted, and it was only by the greatest 
effort that he could proceed. Indeed, he never entirely overcame a 
slight hesitancy in his deliver)-, c\ en when he had won long experi- 
ence and even gained considerable eloquence. In spite of this he 
built up a large law business, which he conducted with such evident 
skill and extensive knowledge that he soon won for himself a reputa- 
tion in the community. A great assistance to him in this matter was 
his appointment as clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court, a posi- 
tion he held for five years, and which gave him ample opportunity to 
meet a large circle of litigants and thus increase his clientele. 

When the War of 1812 broke out. Wall was a member of the 
Phoenix Infantry Corps, and was among those who volunteered. 
He was made captain, and took an active part in the struggle. He 
even thought of resigning his clerkship of the Supreme Court to 
accept a military post offered him. In 1822 he was sent to the State 
legislature. About this time, Wall's politics underwent a change. 
During his youth he had been a strong Federalist, but, under the 
influence of the new ideas to which Jefferson had given such effective 
expression, his opinions had been gradually changing, and now, at 
about the time of General Jackson's candidacy, he came out openly 
as an advocate of the Democracy, and was among the first to sup- 
port the General. In his new role he was opposed not only by his 
political opponents but by the leaders of his new party within the 
State. Perhaps these gentlemen foresaw that the leadership would 
soon pass from their hands into that of the new recruit. ,-\t this 
juncture Wail, who was a candidate for the State Legislature, 
appealed directly to the electorate and made a victorious campaign. 
Once in the Legislature, he was soon in control of affairs, partly 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



through his personal popularity, and also because he had found 
favor with the administration in Washington. The working of both 
these favorable forces was to be seen when in 1829 he was simul- 
taneously elected Governor of New Jersey by the Legislature, and 
appointed United States District Attorney for New Jersey by Presi- 
dent Jaci<son. He declined the former and accepted the latter office, 
which he held for a number of years. In 1834 he was elected by the 
Legislature to the United States Senate, and served during the last 
two years of President Jackson's term and the whole term of Presi- 
dent Van Buren's administration, with whose policies he was in com- 
plete accord. During his senatorship he made an eftecti\"e speech 
against a continuance of the United States Bank. In 1844 ^ "^w 
State Constitution was adopted by New Jersey to replace that which 
William Paterson had been so largely instrumental in forming sixty- 
odd years before. In the agitation for this step, Wall was very 
active and, while not actually a member of the convention which 
drew up the new instrument, his advice was much sought and freely 
given, so that his influence had much to do in its shaping. In 1848 
he was made a Judge in the New Jersey Court of Errors and 
Appeals, an office which he held until his death in 1850. 

Wall was a man of varied interests, an able lawyer, a capable 
statesman, he was also interested in the subject of education, and 
aided in the foundation of Burlington College. A large-minded, 
tolerant man, hospitable, friendly and easily accessible, his death 
was a loss at once to his host of friends and to the community at 
large. 



JOSEPH MelLVAlNE 



JOSEPH McILVAINE, lawyer and Senator, was one of many 
able men who, while their patriotism was never questioned and 
their ability patent, yet, on account of their membership in the less 
influential of the two political parties, did not at once reap the full 
reward of their services, but had to wait until, at a more advanced 
age, the tide turned and carried them into the places which before 
had been denied to them. 

He was born in Bristol. Pennsylvania, in 1765, of Scotch ances- 
try, his grandfather, William Mcllvaine, being the first of his family 
to come from Scotland to the colonies. His father was a colonel in 
the Revolution, and devoted to the cause of his country's freedom. 
But while Joseph Mcllvaine was a nati\e of Pennsylvania, his whole 
life from the close of his boyhood was spent in New Jersey, and it is 
with that State that his career is associated. After attending an 
academy in his native locality he went to Burlington, where he took 
up the study of law, and in 1891 commenced its practice. He joined 
iVIcPherson's Regiment of Blues, in which he was a captain in 1798, 
and later aide-de-camp to (jovernor Bloomfield, of New Jersey, in 
1804. For twenty-three years he served as clerk of the courts of 
Burlington county, from 1800 to 1823, and in 1801 President Jeffer- 
son appointed him United States District Attorney for New Jersey, 
a position which he held for nineteen years. In 18 18 Mcllvaine 
was appointed a Judge of New Jersey's Superior Court, but declined 
the honor, and in 1823 was elected by the State Legislature as 
United States Senator. This office he held for three years, or until 
his death, which occurred in Burlington, August 19, 1826. 



JACOB W. MILLER 



ONE of the picturesque figures in the political arena during 
ante-belkim days was Jacob W. Miller, the last Whig Sen- 
ator from New Jersey. Possessed of very strong and sincere 
convictions, he added to them the greatest industry, complete 
faithfulness to those who depended on him, and a high degree of 
tact. Eloquence seemed to be a family possession in which at least 
his brother, William W. Miller, shared in an unusual degree, since, 
though he died a young man, he has left behind him a reputation for 
eloquence in the New Jersey Bar which perseveres to this day. 

Jacob W. Miller was born in 1800, in German Valley, Morris 
county. New Jersey, and received in boyhood an excellent education. 
He determined upon the law as a profession and studied with his 
elder brother, William W. Miller, whose eloquence has just been 
remarked. He was admitted to the bar, and began at once a prac- 
tice which his great ability soon increased to large dimensions. He 
was for a time associated in partnership with Edward W. Whelpley, 
a brilliant young lawyer who afterwards became Chief Justice of 
the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In 1838, Miller was sent to the 
State Legislature, where his ability as a speaker and wisdom as a 
counsellor were so conspicuous that the same Legislature in 1840 
elected him to Congress as United States Senator from New Jersey. 
Here it was that he distinguished himself greatly by his eloquence 
and energy. To distinguish oneself for eloquence in the LJnited 
States Senate at that period has an unusual meaning, when we 
remember that there were congregated there Webster, Clay, Cal- 
houn, and many others whose names have become immortal for this 
very quality. Of this brilliant group Miller formed one, not un- 
worthy of his company. It is said that he did not speak frequently, 
but was a keen listener and a great student of every measure intro- 
duced into the body, and that, when he would break his silence, 



I'.IOGRAPIIICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 101 



there was no one listened to with more attention and respect. He 
proposed vigorously many new ideas that were coming to have inHii- 
ence with the people, and which he regarded as suhversive of the 
sound principles upon which the government was founded. Among 
these was the annexation of Texas, which act he thought totally at 
variance with the spirit of freedom in our institutions. He delivered 
a most effective address against the proposal, in which he declared 
that if Texas brought with her the riches of India, he would reject 
her, and quoted Aristides' report to Athens upon the strategy of 
Themistocles: "Nothing could be more advantageous, but at the 
same time nothing could be more unjust." He was fighting, how- 
ever, for a lost cause, and in 1855, two years after he had lost his 
seat to a Democratic successor, he gave up the unequal strife. It 
was not, however, for lack of faith in his cause, nor its final victory. 
He hailetl the new Republican party as the deliverer, and allied him- 
self with it heart and soul, throwing the whole force of his char- 
acter and the whole power of his eloquence intcj the cause of the 
Union. He spoke and worked indefatigably for this, his ideal, and, 
though he could not but view with apprehension the approaching 
conflict, he never for a moment feared for the final outcome. He 
foresaw, but was not permitted to view, the event, as death claimed 
him in the year 1862, at his home in Morristown. In many par- 
ticulars his fortune was paralleled by that of his eminent contempor- 
ary and fellow statesman, Theodore PVelinghuysen, whose politics, 
like Miller's, were conservative, who also fought as long as might 
be with the Whigs, who finally allied himself with the new Repub- 
lican party, and fought his best for the preservation of the Union, 
and who, like Miller, was denied the happiness of seeing the out- 
come of their efforts, dying, as did also Miller, in 1862. As an 
example at once of Miller's faith and of his eloquence, the follow- 
ing words from an oration delivered in Morristown will serve ad- 
mirably : 

Let us not be moved by the cry of fanatics, nor alarmer! at the 
threats of secessionists; they are as the angry waves which vainly howl 



102 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



about the battlements and spend their fury upon the unshaken towers of 
our political fortress. Politicians may fret and fume ; State conventions 
may resolve and re-resolve; and Congress itself become the arena of 
fearful agitations ; but above and around, as in a mighty amphitheatre, in 
undisturbed and undismayed majesty, stands the American people, with 
steady eye and giant hand, overlooking all and governing all ; and wo ! wo ! 
to the man, and destruction to the State, that attempts to resist their 
suiireme authority. 



it^^:-> 




IIl-'-^L, He 



HBKlllAM COLES 



ABRAi ;a,. and 

sui'j . ,.mi 

^■;')ck), ani. , iacv- 

.irilus Bot' bom at 

Scotch i" 

11 
son of Ju.! , (t;e lirst '■! 

the family ." (April 23, 

New Jersey, a 

ichusetts with 

1 William and 

1 Frazee, and 

i.er ot Abraham. Ever since 

it Cole. Coles (Coole, Kool) 

> ;> in England, Scotland, Ire- 

rs adding and some omitting 

derived from Coel, a king of 

I a descendant of Carac- 

' the memorable voyage 

. member of the Cole family 

)f the Pilgrims on Cape Cod 

main coast at Salem, in 1628 

lie that James Cole came to 

how that he S'^on became owner of 

.-.,.: street. Ir v :- m \ D. 1637 that 

5cven acres, includi; K-n street lot. 

. , .ry,] around him > ■< - ■ ur sons and a 

.:is named James, which has been a popu- 

'oles) Cole family. *' ■ his and 

•uses were first built of land, 



' ■ '' (.. '/'fu: 



ABRAHAM COLES 



ABRAHAM COLES, eminent as a scholar, poet, physician and 
surgeon, son of Dennis Coles (a descendant from Puritan 
stock), and Catherine Van Deursen Coles ( a descendant of Ever- 
ardus Bogardus and his noted wife, Anneke Jans), was born at 
Scotch Plains, New Jersey, December 26, 18 13. 

His great-grandfather, William Cole (written also "Coles"), 
son of James Coles Jr. and grandson of James Coles Sr., the first of 
the family to buy land and settle at the "Scot's Plain" (April 23, 
1688), married Elizabeth Dennis, of Woodbridge, New Jersey, a 
descendant of Thomas Dennis, who came to Massachusetts with 
John Winthrop in 1630. James (1744-18 12), son of William and 
l.lizabeth ("Betsy Dennis") Cole, married Elizabeth Frazee, and 
tiicir fourth child was Dennis, the father of Abraham. Ever since 
the days of William the Conqueror, the Cole, Coles (Coole, Kool) 
family have had worthy representatives in England, Scotland, Ire- 
land and Holland, some of the members adding and some omitting 
the letter "s." The name is said to be derived from Coel, a king of 
ancient Britain, founder of Colchester, and a descendant of Carac- 
tacus. It was only a few years subsequent to the memorable voyage 
of the "Mayflower," in 1620, when a member of the Cole family 
landed at Plymouth. The settlement of the Pilgrims on Cape Cod 
was soon foUowetl by Puritans on the main coast at Salem, in 1628 
and 1630. It was in this last decade that James Cole came to 
Plymouth and the public records show that he soon became owner of 
land on the south side of Leyden street. It was in A. D. 1637 that 
the court granted him seven acres, including his Leyden street lot. 
Here he lived a lifetime, and around him were his four sons and a 
daughter. I lis eldest son was nametl James, which has been a popu- 
lar name ever since in the (Coles) Cole family. Near where his and 
other of the primitive log houses were first built was a bluff of land, 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

about twenty feet high, at the foot of which lay "Plymouth Rock." 
The granite boulder still occupies the same position, and is protected 
by a canopy of granite, the stepping-stone of the Pilgrims, December 
2 1, 1620. The elevated land is known in history as "Cole's Hill," 
it having become part of James Cole's property. Here during the 
first winter were buried one-half of those who landed from the 
"Mayflower." In Longfellow's "Courtship of Myles Standish," 
the Captain, referring thereto, says: 

Yonder there on the hill b\- the sea. lies buried Rose Standish. 
Beautiful rose of love, that bloomed for me by the wayside ! 
She was the first to die of all who came in the Mayflower ! 
Green above her is growing the field of wheat we have sown therL-, 
Better to hide from the Indian scouts the graves of our people, 
Lest they should count them and see how many already have perished. 

At first members of the Coles family, on their migration from 
New England, settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, as early as 1665- 
166S. Here was a \'ery large and influential branch. Among the 
taxpayers were Daniel, Robert, Nathaniel and John Coles. They 
were loyal and patriotic. In the colonial wars the army roster of 
1 700-1 7 1 ^ contains the names of Captain Robert Coles, F^nsign Na- 
thaniel, Privates Benjamin, Caleb, Samuel, Daniel, Joseph and John 
Coles. Shortly after the purchase of East Jersey, in 1682, by a syn- 
dicate of English Quakers, headed by William Penn, there was a 
large influx of Scotch planters. This was in 1684-85. Of these, sev- 
eral located on the plains under the "Blue Hills," and their settle- 
ment has always been known as "Scotch Plains." In 1688 James 
(Cole) Coles took out a patent from the proprietors, who had re- 
centlv bought the territory. He took title from them for a tract of 
one hundred and twenty-five acres. He had two sons, James Jr. and 
Joseph. From James Cole Jr. descended Dennis Coles (1778- 
1844). "a man of much culture, skilled in mathematics, a polished 
speaker, a member of the State Legislature, and an accomplished 
writer." He acquired the printer's art with Shepard Kollock, and, 
in T S03 established at Newburgh, New York, a newspaper, the 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 105 

"Recorder oi the Times," which was a htcrary and financial success, 
continuing so to be, under another name, as late as 1876. In 1806 
he solii out his Xewburgli business, and with his wife, a daughter of 
a prominent Xewburgh merchant, whom he had married in 1802, 
mo\eJ to Scotch Plains, New Jerse\ , where Abraham was born, as 
ah()\e slated. Abraham was educated by his parents and private 
tutors. At the age of seventeen he taught Latin and mathematics in 
the school of the Rev. Lewis Bond, in Plainheld, New Jersey, after- 
ward he studied law in the otHce of Chief Justice Hornblower, in 
Newark, New Jersey; chose medicine and surgery for his vocation in 
life, graduated at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1835, 
and, in 1836, established himself in Newark, New Jersey, for the 
practice of his profession. 

In 1842 he married Caroline K. Ackerman, the eldest daugh- 
ter of Jonathan C. and Maria Ackerman, of New Brunswick, 
New Jersey. The same year he purchased for his home, which is 
still retained by his family, the brick and stone building. No. 222 
Market street, Newark, New Jersey, where were born his two chil- 
dren, J. Ackerman Coles, M. D., LL. D., and Emilie S. Coles. 

In 1847 he published his first translation of the Latin hymn, 
"Dies Irac," which was extensively copied and made him famous 
throughout the literary world. In 1848, weighed down with sorrow 
by reason of the death of his wife, he sailed for Europe, where he 
remained for nearly two years studying the continental languages 
and meeting professionally and otherwise some of the most eminent 
people of the time. Returning to Newark he resumed practice. In 
18^4 he again visited F'",urope and on his return to Newark his prac- 
tice became largely that of consultation. In 1859 he published in book 
form his first translation of the "Dies Irae" with tAveI\e others he had 
made since 1847. The "Atlantic Monthly" and the press generally 
commended the work in the highest terms. In 1865 appeared his 
translation of the "Stabat Mater Dolorosa," which Dr. Philip Schaff 
designated as the best in the English language. In 1866 he published 
"Old Clems in New Settings," and his physiological poem, "The 



106 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Microcosm," which as president he had read before the New Jersey 
Medical Society, at its Centennial meeting. "The Evangel" he pub- 
lished in 1874, and "The Light of the World" in 1884. The two 
were subsequently bound together under the title of "The Life and 
Teachings of Our Lord in Verse." Concerning this, Hon. John 
Bright, M. P., wrote to Dr. Coles: "1 could envy you the learning 
and industry that has enabled you to produce this remarkable work." 
In 1 887 he published "A New Rendering of the Hebrew Psalms into 
English Verse, with Notes Critical, Historical and Biographical, in- 
cluding an Historical Sketch of the French, English and Scotch 
Metrical Versions" — which has been highly commended by critics in 
Europe and America. In addition to the above works. Dr. Coles 
was the author of articles on various scientific subjects, and his 
national lyrics and hymns are widely known. From Rutgers College 
he received the degree of A. M., from Bucknell University that of 
Ph. D., and from Princeton that of LL. D. in 1871. 

While on a visit to California, with his son and daughter, he died 
at the Hotel del Monte, Monterey, May 3, 1891, from heart failure, 
due to an attack of la grippe. His body was brought to his house in 
Newark, and, after public ser\'ices at the Peddie Memorial Church, 
was placed by the side of his wife in Willow Grove Cemetery, New 
Brunswick, New Jersey. 

On July 5, 1897, ^^ *^he north end of Washington Park, New- 
ark, New Jersey, there was unveiled, with appropriate ceremonies, 
a bronze portrait bust of Abraham Coles, of heroic size, executed by 
John Quincy Adams Ward, its pedestal having as its base a granite 
boulder, weighing seven tons, brought for the purpose from Ply- 
mouth, Massachusetts, near the landing place of the Pilgrims, De- 
cember 21, 1620. The Hon. James M. Seymour, the mayor of 
Newark, in his address, said: 

"On Ijehalf of the jieople of this city, it gives me great pleasure to 
accept from our respected fellow citizen. Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, this fine 
memorial of his father, that distinguished gentleman. Dr. Abraham Coles. 
Nothing could be more appropriate on this spot, opposite our new free 



liTOGRArmCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 107 



public library, than tliis bust. Dr. Cole.-; was tme of America's greatest 
scholars. His books and writings are known and read all over the world, 
and here we knew the pleasant, courteous, kind-hearted physician. His 
predilections from his youth were toward religion, and whether engaged 
in the relief of his fellow men, through the medium of medicine or 
surgery, or penning those beautiful lines, "Rock of Ages.' or delving 
among the dead tongues of bygone days, it is easy to find in all his work 
a predominant desire to serve, as best he knew how, his God." 

President Stainshy, of the Board of Works, said: 

"In this park now stand two monuments — one (that of Seth Boyden) 
speaks for the foundry and the mechanic, the foundation of this city's 
strength. The other speaks of the professional man, and the man of 
literature, made possible by our material greatness. The foundation stone 
will recall to all passers the sterling worth and fixidity of princi[)les of the 
Puritan fathers, and the superstructure, bearing the bust, will bring to our 
minds the religious in man. and both will be tonud typified in the life and 
character of Dr. Coles." 

The Rev. Dr. Alexander Harrison Tuttle, in reviewing the life 
and work of Dr. Coles, said : 

"Ever since, as President. Dr. Abraham Coles, at the Centennial Meet- 
ing of the New Jersey State .Me<lical .Society, delivered his poem '.Man 
the Microcosm.' he has been known as and called 'the physician [)oet.' 
In this poem he has sung with genuine ])oetic genius of the organs and 
functions of the human bo<ly. Nothing of the kind had appeared before 
in our speech. It at once commanded tlie attention and commendation of 
both physicians and artists. Dr. Coles was 'a ]H)ct of cidture." whose aim 
was perfect artistic expression. What determined his choice was partly 
his scholarship, partly his intensely spiritual nature, and jjartly the elegant 
refinement to which he was born and lived. His learning was varied 
and accurate. He was a recognized authority in iiis [)rofession, an 
accomplished lingtiist. a master of the classic tongues and a critical writer 
on the profoundest theological themes. The vastness of his learning gave 
him such ample material for his verse that his jioetic passion made no 
imperious call for the invention of the intuitive faculty. 

"As Corot caught the varying niovenient of the trembling foliage in 
the dee[)ening twilight, and so |)laced it on his canvas that one can almost 
see the shadows lengthening and hear the rustling of the leaves, so our 
poet has reproduced the very soul of the Hebrew and Latin verses. They 
are not versified translations — they are regenerations. They are not 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



wrought from without, but from within. Hence they retain tliat inesti- 
mable something that gives to a poem its immortaHty. 

"His Cireek and Latin translations are ranked by critics tlie very 
foremost. His psalms and hymns and gospels occupy an honored place in 
every great library of Europe and America. As the years separate us 
wider and ever wider from those great productive periods of sacred song, 
which made glad the ages past, more and more will the coming generations 
feel the need of Dr. Abraham Coles' rich echoes." 




A^^j^'-^.e^^ ^b^r(^. 



:Uy 

1 Society (it 

11 Museum I'f 

!- of the Newark Museum of 

sociation at Morristown, New 

;k, for Lincoln Park, the life- 

C. B. Ives; for Washington 

Nust of his father, hv John 



Newark; to the New 



•. H ;| I I .11. 

London 



^^t«^. 



JONATHAN ACKERMAN COLES 



JONATHAN ACKERMAN COLES, only son of Abraham and 
Caroline (Ackerman) Coles, was born in Newark, New Jersey, 
May 6, 1843; graduated at Columbia, New York, in 1864 (A. M. 
1867), and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1868; re- 
ceived the Harzen prize in 1867 for the best written report of clinical 
instruction in the medical and surgical wards of the New York Hos- 
pital; attended lectures in the English and continental universities 
and hospitals, 1 877-1 878; was made president of the Union County 
(New Jersey) Medical Society, 1891 ; is a member of the American 
Medical Association; member of the New York State and County 
Medical Society; a life member, trustee and patron of the New 
Jersey Historical Society; member of the New York Historical 
Society; National Geographical Society; Anglo-Saxon Society of 
London and Copenhagen; a fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, New York; an honorary member of the Newark Museum of 
Art; a member of the Washington Association at Morristown, New 
Jersey. He gave to the city of Newark, for Lincoln Park, the life- 
size historic bronze Indian group, by C. B. Ives; for Washington 
Park, an heroic size bron/e portrait bust of his father, by John 
Quincy Adams Ward; ga\c to the people of New Jersey the paint- 
ing of the Good Samaritan, by Daniel Huntington and Paul De- 
Larrche, now in the State I louse, Trenton, New Jersey; gave to 
Admiral Dewey, after his victory in Manila Bay, a Barye bronze; 
has also given works of art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
New York; to the Free Public Library, Historical Society, City 
Hall and Lligh School, of Newark; to the New Congressional 
Library, at Washington; to Independence Hall, Philadelphia; to 
Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Richmond (Virginia) College and other 
universities and colleges, including Oxford and Cambridge, Eng- 
land, and to the American Embassy, London. By a gift of his 



no DIUGRAPHICAL ENXYCLOPEDIA 

father's shares of stock in the Newark. Library Association, he 
secured for the New Jersey Historical Society the possession and 
control of the handsome stone building now occupied by it on Park 
street. Recently he gave to the Tabernacle Church, at Salem, Mas- 
sachusetts, a bronze tablet (costing over $500), commemorating the 
ordination, February 6, 18 12, of Adoniram Judson, Gordon Hall, 
Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott and Luther Rice as the first American 
missionaries to Asia. He has given a Campanile, with clock and 
chimes, also a Karen chapel, for Rangoon, Burma; also a brick and 
stone faculty building for the Canton Christian College, at Canton, 
China; also high school and dormitory buildings of brick and stone, 
of beautiful oriental designs, for Kurnool and Nellore, South India. 
Has also given a summer home and farm at Mountainside, Union 
county. New Jersey, for orphans, where they have boats and swings, 
and each a garden for flowers and vegetables. He has contributed 
articles for the press and edited new editions of his father's works. 
His choice collection of paintings includes examples of the various 
schools, works by Corot, West, Constable, Turner, Bridgeman, 
Diaz, etc. He has a fine library of books of rich bindings, his 
books, statuary and works of art being at his homes in New York 
and at Scotch Plains, New Jersey, where, unmarried, he resides with 
his sister. Miss Emilie S. Coles, a doer of good works and a success- 
ful writer of prose and verse. 



EPHRAIM BATE3IAN 



THE life of Ephraiiii Bateniaii, pliysician aiiJ Senator, is a 
good example of how brains, unaided sa\ e by hard work, 
can raise a man from the humblest of beginnings to a most dis- 
tinguished position, and win for him the admiration and respect 
of his community. From the earliest youth, young Bateman's am- 
bitions reached out beyond the narrow limitations fortune had im- 
posed upon him, and he never failed in his determination to accom- 
plish more than the task allotted to him, in the expectation that the 
margin would still accumulate and some day lift him upward to suc- 
cess. 

Born in Cumberland, New Jersey, in 1770, he began life as a 
mechanic's apprentice, but devoted all his spare time to the study of 
medicine, of which he acquired a very extensive knowledge. In 
time he became a practicing physician, and won great renown in his 
district through the cures he made. He ditl, indeed, seem to possess 
a sort of genius in his profession which enabled him to grasp the 
situation, and he actually accomplished some cures in the face of 
adverse conditions, so that his reputation was deserved. A man of 
alert mind and the most varied interests, he took an active part in 
the politics of his community, and was sent to the State Legislature. 
where he remained a number of years. In 18 15 he was elected to 
the United States House of Representatives, serving there eight 
years, and in 1826 was sent to the Senate, holding his seat until 
1829. In all of his public offices he served his constituents con- 
scientiously and well, and was most zealous for the common weal. 
He was a man of the highest probity of character, public-spirited and 
energetic, and all of whose relations in life, pri\ate as well as public, 
were distinguished by honesty and virtue. He died January 29, 
1829, in his native town, honored and respected by the whole com- 
munitv. 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

An amusing story is told of Bateman which caused at the time 
no end of discussion. It seems that in 1826 he and Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen were opposing candidates for the Senate to fill the vacancy 
left by the death of Senator Mcllvaine. In the vote taken, the 
Legislature was equally devided, but Mr. Bateman who, as Presi- 
dent of the Council, had the deciding vote, promptly made himself 
Senator. There was a great deal of criticism at the time, but the 
Senate afterwards decided that Mr. Bateman's action was perfectly 
legal, and confirmed his election. 



JOH.N C()XO\ EK TEN EVClv 



THE training and education ot John Conover Ten I'yck was 
particularly well suited to the part in life he was destined 
to play, and very probably exercised no small influence in deter- 
mining what that part should be. Possessed of a high degree of 
learning, an extensive acquaintance with the history of the world 
and knowledge of its customs and achievements in art and literature, 
besides a thorough understanding of his chosen profession, the law, 
he was eminently fitted to play the part of advisor in the difficult 
task of framing a Constitution for a great State, whereby her gov- 
ernmental and political relations should be guided, and which should 
exist as the paramount law in State questions. It was in this inval- 
uable function that Mr. Ten Eyck made for himself his greatest and 
most lasting claim for fame and the gratitude of his fellow citizens. 
Born March 12, 18 14, in Freehold, Monmouth county, New 
Jersey, Mr. Ten Eyck's classical education was conducted under 
private tutors and carried on in an unusually thorough manner. 
When he finally turned from general studies to that of his chosen 
profession, the law, it was under the tutelage of the Hon. Joseph F. 
Randolph, Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, that he 
placed himself, whose qualifications as a preceptor, together with his 
pupil's unusual aptitude, so prospered matters that he was admitted 
to the bar in 18.^5, when only twenty-one years of age. He began 
his practice in Burlington, where he formed a partnership with the 
Hon. Garret D. Wall, then United States Senator from New Jersey. 
With such associations and his own gifts it is not to be wondered at 
that he was successful, and soon won for himself a leading place at 
the New Jersey Bar. In 1839 he was appointctl Prosecutor of the 
Pleas for Burlington county, and this position he held for ten years, 
performing the duties of his office in a most creditable manner. It 
w'as in i 844 that the con\ention met for framing a new Constitution 

NO— 8 



114 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

for New Jersey, and it was as a member of the same that Mr. Ten 
Eyck, although next to the youngest among them all did such good 
service and attracted the favorable attention of his confreres. In 
1859, in recognition of his good services and qualities, he was elected 
to the United States Senate, in which august body he further distin- 
guished himself, serving on the Senate Committees on Commerce, 
Patents and the Judiciary. In 1873 he was once more called to take 
part in the revision of the Constitution of his State, and acted as 
chairman of the commission which drew up the list of amendments 
eventually ratified by the people of New Jersey. 

Mr. Ten Eyck was a Whig and Republican in politics, and an 
eminently public-spirited man. His death occurred at Mount Holly, 
New Jersey, on the twenty-fourth day of August, 1879. 



RICHARD STOCKTON FIELD 



THERE is no older or more distinguished name in the history 
of New Jersey than that of Field, the members of which 
family trace their lineage back to the fifteenth century to one 
William Feld or Fieide, of Ardsley, England. Of the same family 
although probably not in the direct line, was John Fieide, a grand- 
son of the same William Fieide, and a great astronomer. John 
Fieide was the first to make use of the great theoretical system of 
Copernicus for the purpose of practical calculation, and his great 
work, "Ephemeris Anni 1557 currentis, Juxta Copernici et Rein- 
haldi Canones Fideliter per Joannem Field," was probably the first 
which called general attention in England to the great philosopher 
and scientist. Fieide or Field was made a Fellow of Lincoln's Col- 
lege, Oxford. lie wrote an "Ephemeris" for 1558 and one for 
1559. and in recognition of his scientific services was granted a 
patent authorizing him to wear as a crest over the family arms, a red 
right arm issuing from the clouds and supporting a golden sphere. 
There is a most interesting seal still in the possession of the Fields, 
displaying this crest on one side and the family arms on the other 
and the initials of Robert Field, the first ancestor migrating to this 
country. Robert Field, born in England in 1605, came to New Eng- 
land in 1635, and ten years later removed to Newtown, Long Island. 
I lere he formed one of a group to whom Governor Keift granted the 
tract of land known as the Flushing Patent. Robert C. Field, a de- 
scendant of this first Robert, married Abby Stockton, a daughter of 
Richard Stockton and Annis Boudinot, and of this union the sub- 
ject of this sketch was born. Richard Stockton was thus sprung 
from two of the most illustrious stocks in the State, numbering 
among his near relatives many of the most eminent names in the 
history of his State. The mutual respect of the families for one 



116 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

another may be seen in the names of our subject and his cousin, 
Richard Stockton Field and Robert Field Stockton. 

Richard Stockton Field was born at Whitehill, Burlington 
county, New Jersey, December 31, 1803. When he was but seven 
years old his father died, and the following year his mother removed 
to Princeton, where her family lived. Here young Field received 
his education, finally graduating from Princeton College in 1821. 
He determined upon the law as a profession and took up its study in 
the office of his uncle, the eminent jurist, Richard Stockton. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1825 and went to Salem, where he remained 
engaged in the practice of his profession until 1832, when he re- 
turned to Princeton. He was a member of the State Legislature for 
some years, and in 1838 was appointed Attorney-General of New- 
Jersey by Governor Pennington. At about this period there was 
begun an agitation for a new Constitution for New Jersey. The 
Constitution then in force was in many respects a remarkable instru- 
ment. It had been adopted in 1776 by a convention chosen for the 
purpose two days before the signing of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. The framing and adoption of the instrument had taken but a 
few days of the convention's time, and that great jurist and patriot, 
William Paterson, was supposed to have been the author, although, 
for reasons of prudence this was kept secret. However this may 
have been, the hastily adopted instrument remained in force sixty- 
eight years, and in many respects was eminently satisfactory. There 
were, of course, some crudities and some provisions not considered 
compatible with the democratic ideals of the State or Nation. Such, 
for instance, was that which prohibited any but a lawyer from hold- 
ing the office of Governor of the State. In the agitation for a new 
Constitution, Field was most active, and when, at length, a conven- 
tion had been formed, he was one of its most influential members. 

Besides his great legal abilities. Field was a writer of distinc- 
tion and greatly interested in the history of his State. He became 
the third president of the New Jersey Historical Society, and con- 
tributed largely to its collection. Among his writings perhaps the 



I'.IOGRAPlllCAf. EXCVCLOPEDIA 117 



most important is his work entitled "The Provincial Courts of New 
Jersey, with Si^etches of tiie Bench and Bar," which forms a portion 
of the New Jersey "Collections." He contributed also to the 
"Princeton Review. ' I'^ducation was another of Field's interests 
and he made himself busy with the cause of public education to such 
an extent that when the State Normal School came into existence in 
1855, he was elected president of its Board of Trustees. He be- 
came also Professor of Law in the law school in connection with 
Princeton College, and upon him the latter institution conferred the 
degree of Doctor of Laws. 

When the great contro\ ersy o\er sla\ery became the important 
issue before the country. Field was a strong supporter of the integ- 
rity of the L^nion and delivered many eloquent addresses upon the 
subject. He cast in his lot with the new Republican party and in 
I 86 1 was elected L'nitcti States Senator to fill the unexpired term 
of the Hon. John R. Thompson. In the same year he delivered 
what was perhaps his most impressive public expression, a speech on 
"The Constitution not a compact between Sovereign States." He 
was appointed by President Lincoln, Judge of the L^nited States 
Court for the District of New Jersey. F itld was perhaps even more 
the student and scholar than statesman, though this is no disparage- 
ment to his qualifications in the latter realm. He was a most cul- 
tured and facile speaker, and his death, which occurred May 25, 
1870, robbed his fellows of a most cultivated and delightful friend, 
and his State of an earnest and ardent worker for her good, a gentle- 
man who typifieil to the world the best traditions of that high title. 



t^ 



JOHN R. THOMPSON 



JOHN R. THOMPSON, financier and statesman, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1800. He was 
educated in his native city and began his business career in the count- 
ing house of a prominent merchant there. It was necessary for him 
to go to China in connection with his business, and here he remained 
a resident for a number of years. While abroad he received an 
appointment from President Monroe constituting him United States 
Consul for the city and district of Canton. He was engaged in the 
Chinese tea trade and amassed a considerable fortune, with which, 
in 1825, he returned to the United States, and shortly after married 
a sister of Commodore Stockton. He chose Princeton as a place of 
residence and here took an active part in a number of presidential 
campaigns. In politics he was a Jacksonian Democrat, and he was 
an ardent supporter and energetic agitator for the new State Consti- 
tution then in question, and canvassed the State in this connection. 
In 1844, when a new Constitution had been finally decided upon, 
and the convention was meeting for the purpose of framing it, 
Thompson was nominated for the Governorship of the State, but 
was defeated. He retired from public life after this, and remained 
for a time, until the resignation of Senator Stockton in 1853, left a 
vacancy in the United States Senate, which he was chosen to fill. He 
was again elected to that high office in 1857 for the full term of six 
years. But a year before the completion of his term he suffered 
from a stroke of paralysis from which he never recovered, dying Sep- 
tember 13, 1862. 

Mr. Thompson was greatly interested in the question of the 
trade and manufactures of his adopted State. He was one of the 
promoters of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, and for many years 
secretary and director of the company of that name. After his death 
his brother-in-law, Commodore Stockton, said of him : 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 119 



He took part, at an important c])ocli in the history of the State, in 
urging the adoption of the present Constitution of New Jersey, as a sub- 
stitute for the imperfect organization of the State government which pre- 
ceded it, and he closed his career while rejjresenting New Jersey in the 
Senate of the United States, to which distinguished position he was twice 
elected by the Legislature. \'aluai)le as Mr. Thom])son's services were 
to these companies, distinguished as was his political career, yet by us, 
who were his companions and friends, he will be regretted for those 
social qualities of which he was so eminently possessed; his memory will 
be recalled by the recollection of the delightful hours we have [)assed in 
companionship with him. W'e will nionrii on our own account the society 
of the friend we have lost, the charm of his conversation, his cheerful 
smile and pleasant anecdote. 






WILLIAM LEWIS DAYTON 



WILLIAM LEWIS DAYTON, lawyer, statesman, diplomat, 
was born on a farm in Somerset county. New Jersey, Febru- 
ary 17, 1807. He was a member of a family long prominent in that 
part of the State, while a relative, Jonathan Dayton, had made a 
place for himself in the national history as a member of the Conven- 
tion which framed the Federal Constitution, and a United States 
Senator. 

William L. Dayton's great-grandfather had settled in E'liza- 
bethtown sometime prior to 172^ it is believed, and about the same 
time his mother's family came to Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Both 
sides of the house were distinguished for their patriotism and public 
spirit at a time when these qualities were not rare. To Joel Dayton 
descended the old Dayton farm upon which he prospered, providing 
for his sons the best possible educations in that time and place. Wil- 
liam Lewis, the eldest of these sons, studied with the well-known 
teacher. Dr. Brownlee, of Basking Ridge, and later entered Nassau 
Hall, from which he graduated with the class of 1825, when eighteen 
years of age. Having chosen law for his profession, he read his sub- 
ject in the office of Peter D. Vroom, at that time the leader of the 
Democratic party in the State, and later Governor of New Jersey. 
With this eminent lawyer, Dayton formed a strong friendship which 
lasted the rest of their lives despite emphatic political differences. 
Dayton was admitted to the bar in 1830, and at once began practice 
in Freehold. His unusual powers were not long in displaying them- 
selves. Possessed of a natural dignity and a highly developed moral 
sense, his keen, alert mind and forceful personality soon placed him 
among the leaders of the bar and attracted a large clientele. Day- 
ton was an ardent Whig in politics, but his party had long been out 
of power in the State. In 1836 a vigorous campaign was started, 
very largely at the call of Dayton, to win once more the State for the 



LUO(]RAl'llICAL ENXYCLOPEDIA 121 

Whig party. In this campaign Dayton headed the ticket for the 
Legislative Council, and was carried into a sweeping popular victory. 
Once in the Legislature, he assumed a commanding position, and was 
appointed chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in this position 
framed a law which greatly improved the contiuct of the county 
courts. This law required such courts to he presided over, each by a 
Judge of the Supreme Court, and it rendered necessary the creation 
of two more judges of that court, bringing the total number from 
three to five. Dayton himself was chosen to fill one of the new 
justiceships and thereupon removed to Trenton, which he made his 
permanent home. .After three years of service, Dayton concluded 
that, in justice to his family, he would give up his honorary duties 
and return to his far more lucrative private practice. He was not 
allowed this retirement long, however, for in 1842 Governor Penn- 
ington, of New Jersey, appointed him to the United States Senate 
to till the place left vacant by the death of Senator Southard. Sen- 
ator Dayton took up his new duties at the age of thirty-five, being 
probably the youngest member of that august body, but at once took 
an active part in the deliberations, and was soon appointed on the 
Judiciary Committee. He was a strong protectionist and supported 
the high tariff bill of 1842. He strongly opposed the Mexican War, 
but when that conflict was begun, he supported the administration 
cheerfully, and voted for all necessary supplies for its successful 
prosecution. It was at about this time that the first mutterings of 
the approaching civil conflict began to be heard and the (juestion of 
slavery to raise its sinister head. Dayton was strongly opposcii to 
the extension of slavery, but contended that the P'ederal government 
hnd no right to interfere with the states within their own territory. 
In 1856 he was nominated for Vice-President by the Republicans, 
and the following year became .\ttorney-General of New Jersey. 
In the next Republican presidential convention there was consider- 
able talk of nominating Dayton for President, and it is claimed that 
Lincoln intended to offer him a cabinet position and would have done 
so but for the pressure brought to bear upon him by the political 



122 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

powers in the great States, such as New York and Pennsylvania, and 
which he was unable to resist. He did otter him the position of 
Minister to France, and this, after much hesitation, Dayton accepted. 
In the unfamiliar duties of his new otfice, Dayton distinguished him- 
self not less than he had at home, and it was admitted by the French 
diplomats that it was due in no small measure to the frank and open 
character of Dayton's diplomacy that many critical episodes between 
the two countries were passed so safely. Among other services he 
rendered his country in this troublous time was that of persuading 
the French government to forbid the delivery to the Confederacy of 
a number of war vessels built for it in France, and thus practically 
saving American commerce. It was during the continuance of this 
office that the death of Mr. Dayton occurred suddenly in Paris, De- 
cember I, 1864. 

Mr. Dayton's career was one of those that shed an extra lustre 
upon the glory of his State, and his death left a gap in the ranks of 
his country's servants not easily tilled. 



ROBERT FIELD STOCKTON 



THERE is no name more intimately connected with the history 
of New Jersey than that ot Stockton, no family which has 
contributed more eminent men than the Stocktons, to her courts, 
her councils and her armies. It is rare indeed that in unbroken 
sequence, three generations, father, son and grandson, should so 
distinguish themselves as to be counted among the leading citizens 
of the State and occupy some of the highest offices of trust within 
their community. Richard Stockton, one of the staunchest oppo- 
nents of the pre-revolutionary tyranny of the British governors, 
member of the Continental Congress and Signer of the immortal 
Declaration, was the first of this illustrious trio, and Richard Stock- 
ton, the younger, jurist and statesman, was the second. 

Robert Field Stockton, the third of the group, was born in 
I'rinceton in 1796 and began his education there. While he was a 
student in the College of New Jersey, the War of 181 2 broke out 
with Great Britain, and Stockton, who had a decided bent for things 
military, left the college and enlisted in the navy as midshipman. 
His first cruise was made in the frigate "President," under the com- 
mand of Commodore Rodgers, and while on this vessel he took part 
in a number of engagements with so much gallantry that he was men- 
tioned in the despatches which his commander sent to headquarters. 
He had not long to wait for recognition, but was commissioned as 
lieutenant in December, 18 14. The war with Great Britain diti not 
last long, but shortly afterwards the .Mgerine trouble came to a head 
and a fleet was despatched to the Mediterranean. With them sailed 
the "Guerriere," to which Stockton had been assigned. He was 
shortly transferred to the "Spitfire," as first lieutenant. In this posi- 
tion he distinguished himself by an act of bravery which drew the 
attention of all to him. Aided by but a single boat's crew, he sur- 
prised, boarded and captured an Algcrine man-of-war. He was now 



124 lUOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 

transferred to the flag ship "Washington." and shortly after given 
his first command, the sloop-of-vvar "Erie," and returned to America 
in 1 82 I. Not long after this he was appointed to aid the American 
Colonization Society in their efforts to secure territory for their pro- 
posed colony. This, after many delays, he was able to effect and the 
natives ceded a large tract, which became the Republic of Liberia. 
1 his business settled, he continued on the African coast for a time, 
capturing slavers, with which those waters swarmed. During his 
efforts to break up the nefarious traffic, he captured a Portugese 
privateer which he fitted with a prize crew and sent back to America. 
This incident was the cause of a long litigation between the two 
countries in the admiralty courts. It was finally concluded with a 
= verdict exonerating Stockton of wrong doing, but the privateer was 
returned to Portugal. From the African coast Stockton proceeded 
to the West Indies, where he engaged in much the same kind of 
work, routing out the pirates and buccaneers of those waters. He 
finally returned to America, where he was granted a long furlough. 

Stockton was greatly interested in the application of steam 
power to naval \essels and he strongly opposed the construction of 
warships with paddle-wheel propellers, noting that their disablement 
by the enemy would be a comparatively easy matter. He therefore 
drew plans for a vessel which should be propelled by screws and have 
her engines below the water line. As usual in the case of all improve- 
ments, the authorities on the subject advanced all sorts of reasons 
against the practicability of the plan, and it was only after long 
efforts that Stockton persuaded the naval authorities to consider the 
construction of an experimental vessel. At length he did succeed and 
the vessel was immediately a success. 

Upon the outbreak of the Mexican War, Commodore Stock- 
ton was ordered to Pacific waters with his fleet. Here he soon per- 
ceived what a great advantage to the United States would be the 
occupation of the western coast of Mexico. He therefore upon his 
own initiative sailed thither and, landing with about six hundred 
marines and sailors, seized the territory and set up a provisional 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 125 

government. At the same time General Kearny had also been in the 
neighborhood and himself had set up a provisional government. 
Out of this simple state of affairs there grew a most unfortunate 
controversy between the navy and army, involving the old dispute 
over the question of authority. A court-martial was appointed which 
finally decided the matter. 

In 1849 Stockton resigned his commission and returned to his 
native State, where, in 185 i, he was elected by the State Legislature 
to the United States Senate, where he remained until 1853, when he 
resigned. Illustrative of his humane instincts, is the fact that while 
Senator he introduced a bill into Congress abolishing Hogging as a 
punishment in the navy. He also strongly opposed the petition ot 
Kossuth to Congress for America to intervene between Austria and 
Hungary in the latter's struggle for freedom. In 1856 Stockton's 
many friends began an agitation in favor of presenting his name for 
the presidency, but the attempt was abortive and be retired entirely 
into private life. He suffered financial reverses iluring the latter 
years of his life, which he spent at his home in Princeton. Here on 
October 7, 1866, he died in the seventieth year of his age. 



\\ILLIA3I WRKiHT 



WILLIAM WRIGHT, one of Newark's most successful busi- 
ness men, was born in Rockland county, New York, in 
1 79 I. He was the son of Dr. William Wright, an eminent physi- 
cian of that region, and a descendant of early Connecticut settlers. 
He was sent as a boy to a school in Poughkeepsie, where it was his 
intention to prepare himself for a college course, but this was ren- 
dered impossible by the sudden death of his father, which left him 
without the means of support. Lie was obliged, therefore, to betake 
himself to some occupation and accordingly apprenticed himself to 
a harness-maker, of whom he learned the trade. During the period 
of his apprenticeship, he managed not only to support himself, but 
to save from his meager wages the sum of three hundred dollars, 
with which, on attaining his majority, he hired and stocked a small 
shop in Bridgeport. Not long after he entered into a partnership 
with William Peet, his father-in-law, and one Sheldon Smith, and 
with these gentlemen opened a saddle and harness manufactory, 
with a branch house in Charleston, South Carolina. At about this 
time the city of Newark, New Jersey, was growing into its important 
position in the manufacturing world, and to this point, in 1821, 
Wright and his partners removed their factor}'. In the course of 
time the business developed into one of the most important of its 
kind in the country and eventually enabled Mr. Wright to retire 
from active business life with a large fortune. 

During the time that Mr. Wright was engaged in business in 
his adopted city, his activity and probity were bringing him before 
the notice of his fellow townsmen, so that, although he never took 
any direct part in political affairs, his views and character were known 
to many, and, in 1840, he was nominated and elected, without oppo- 
sition, Mayor of Newark. But Mr. Wright's political opinions 
were, about the time of his entering politics, undergoing a decided 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 127 

change. From an ardent Whig and supporter of Henry Clay, he 
became an Independent, and, in 1S42, he ran as candidate for the 
L nited States House of Representatives, on an independent ticket, 
and defeated the nominees of both the regular parties, repeating the 
performance in 1844. The change, however, did not end here, and, 
in 185 I, he joined the Democratic party, which two years later nomi- 
nated and elected him United States Senator, to succeed the Hon. 
Jacob W. Miller. He was appointed chairman of the Senate Com- 
mittee on Manufactures and a member of the Committee to Audit 
and Control the Expenses of the Senate. In 1859 he lost his seat to 
John C. Ten Eyck, but in the succeeding election of 1863 he was 
once more returned to the Senate. On November i, iS66, the death 
of Mr. Wright occurred at his home in Newark, the city of his adop- 
tion, where he had won for himself so enviable a reputation anti in 
which he had prospered so greatly. 



EDMUND D. HALSEY 



THE patent of nobility that rested its honors and distinctions 
in the person of Edmund Drake Halsey came from high 
authority, since it was based upon exalted character and distin- 
guished ability. Looking into the clear perspective of his career, 
there may be seen definite courage, persistent determination and self- 
confidence, which, as coupled with integrity of purpose, are the fac- 
tors that conserve success and make it consistent. Many men have 
achieved marked success along one line of endeavor, but to few has 
it been gi\'en to attain the precedence in so many varied enterprises 
as that achieved by Mr. Halsey. He won renown as soldier and 
historian and was likewise a lawyer of recognized ability. He died 
at Rockaway, New Jersey, October 17, 1896. 

Mr. Halsey's genealogy betokens that he is a scion of a family 
whose associations with the annals of American history have been 
intimate and honorable from the early colonial epoch. Thomas 
Halsey, original progenitor of the Halsey family in America, was a 
nati\e of England, whence he immigrated to Lynn, Massachusetts, 
prior to 1637. He was a son of Robert and Dorothy (Downes) 
Halsey and a grandson of William and Elizabeth (Lodge) Halsey. 
Thomas Halsey married a Miss Mercer and the first born of their 
four children was Thomas Jr., who had a son Nathaniel, born in 
1675, and married Anna Stanborough. Recompense Halsey, son of 
Nathaniel, was born in 1700, moved from Long Island to New Jer- 
sey, settling first at Scotch Plains and removing thence to Morris 
county, where his death occurred in 1771. Among his children was 
one Elihu, born in 1742, and died at Hanover, New Jersey, No- 
vember 29, 1770. Elihu married Elizabeth Ely and their first child 
was Dr. Abraham, born in 1764, and died at Hopewell, New York, 
May 7, 1822. Dr. Abraham Halsey married Nancy Beach and 
among their children was Samuel Beach, father of the subject of this 



c^:6uuz,c^t . 



El):v , -. IIALSEY 



THI" patent of nobility that rested m. honors and distinctions 
<(i the person of Edmund Drake Halsey came from high 
authority, since it was based upon exalted character and distin- 
guisbcii anility. Looking into the clear peripective . ' :r, 

there ii\«;, be seen definite courage, persistent determinn. :- 

cot!i;u>n e. which, a^ coupled with integrity of purpose, aiv liic fac- 
tors :h.'? conserve sisrcess and make it consistent. Many men have 
achi; ' -.' narked success along one line of endeavor, but to few has 
it bct" >i^cn to attali! the precedence in so many yaried enterprises 
as (hi .chieved by Mr. Halsey. He won renown as soldier and 
h'^' ''•'! was likf'vvivc a lawyer of recognized ability. He died 

2i New J fi-'-;,'., October 17, 1896. 

iscy's gii" '^gy betokens that he is a scion of a family 
w' -tions \v:' : r".. annals of American history have been 

ir ,1 the early colonial epoch. Thomas 

} '• ! the Halsey family in America, was a 

n ■ !.,i;d, v. ;.L, . Jic immigrated to Lynn, Massachusetf; 

p: - He Win . ';,)n of Robert and Dorothy (Downes) 

li liiam and Elizabeth (Lodge) Halsey. 

I I ;s-i Mercer and the first born of their 

f. ' rhoni;-.-, I"., who had a son Nathaniel, born in 

i: \nir! S ' "' rough. Recompense Halsey, son of 

N - td from Long Island to New Jer- 

Si and removing thence to Morris 

o ,1771. Among his children was 

oj; . Hanover, New Jersey, No- 

beth Ely and their first child 

;i 1764, .: .. ,]ied at Hopewell, New York, 

''.' ^'iham II' !"i married Nancy Beach and 

■ father of the subject of this 




cd^u^^^J^':^//cLI^ 



r- 



lUOGRAPillCAL EXCYCLOTEDIA 129 

review, born July 24, 1796, at Hopewell, New York, and died at 
Rockaway, New Jersey. September 15, 1871. 

Dr. Abraham 1 lalsey, mentioned above, was a resident of 
Hopewell, ( )range county. New York, during the greater part of his 
lifetime. He was an exceedingly well educated and well read man, 
was a physician and surgeon of splendid ability and a loyal and 
public-spirited citizen. The following extract, taken from the Hal- 
sey genealogy, compiled by the late Edmund Drake Halsev, shows 
the type of man he was : 

The character of Dr. Halsey was marked by traits of the most esti- 
mable kind. He was the ready patron of every enterprise lur improving; 
the condition of society around him. He very early got uj) a circulating 
library and kept it up by constant attention and frequent subscri])tion. He 
gave to two of his three sons a collegiate education and would have given 
the same to the youngest had he at the time been disposed to accept it. 
He was very hospitable and entertained not only his friends and acquaint- 
ances, but as he lived in the path of the first emigration from New Eng- 
land westward, lie often had large families resting themselves at his place 
and talking over their |)rospects and expectations, as well as their past 
history. He was the ever-ready patron of every young man who showed 
a disposition to rise above his surroundings, and many such had reason 
to thank him for his disinterested and substantial encouragement and aid. 
He was firm in his political opinions but never a candidate for political 
honors. He was a man of strict integrity and observant of all the laws 
of propriety of conduct, especially careful to keep the .^abbath and to 
re<juire its observance in his family. He bad many warm friends and no 
enemies. 

Samuel Beach Halsey, son of Dr. .Abraham Halsey and father 
of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, was graduated in Union 
College, with the second honor, and was a practitioner of law in 
New York State until 1834, when he removed to Rockaway, New 
Jersey. A resume of his life and character is beautifully given in 
the following paragraphs written by his son Edmund : 

His educational and literary attainments were of a high order, and 
could only be measured by the large and liberal tastes of the true scholar. 
The material of his thought was wonderfully rich, and bis ideas upon any 
NC— 



130 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

subject, however intricate, were neither barren nor impoverished, but were 
at once as full and clear cut as they were brilliant. 

But the crowning beauty of his life was his kind and beautiful char- 
acter, whose generous impulses were as free and boundless as they were 
systematized ; and therefore of the greater practical importance. His 
sympathies and interest in any good cause were large and generous, and if 
he was not the proposer of a movement, he was always ready and willing 
to second it with his endorsement and material assistance. To what 
extent this was the case, one has only to recall his church coiniectiims for 
forty years to realize. 

He was never idle a single waking hour when in health, and he could 
not endure the presence of an idler. He discharged financial trusts with 
conspicuous fidelity and ability. It would have been a positive torment to 
him to think that he had a dollar in his possession wrongfully. He was 
exceedingly conscientious, and suffered at times long and, to his friends, 
unaccountable, seasons of depression in view of sins of thought or deed 
which seemed to him heinous in the sight of his Maker. Subscriptions 
for the support of the gospel and in aid of education or other philan- 
thropic causes were with him debts ; and all cases of doubt between 
himself and others he would decide against himself. He would rather 
frankly lose than doubtfully win. 

In 1826 Samuel Beach Halsey was honored by his fellow citi- 
zens with election to the New York. Legislature from Dutchess 
county, and he was again elected to that body in 1830. In 1841 he 
was a member of the New Jersey Legislature, and in 1842 was 
Speaker of the Assembly. He was a Judge of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, and superintendent of the schools of Morris count)'. For 
thirty years he was ruling elder of the church of Rockaway. He 
married, September 1;, 1821, Sarah Dubois, only daughter of Colo- 
nel Joseph and Elizabeth Piatt (Ogden) Jackson, born June 2, 
1803, and died January 20, 1859. Colonel Jackson was engaged 
in the mining and manufacturing of iron during his active career. 
He was a member of the New Jersey Legislatiire and was a promi- 
nent factor in the affairs of the Rockaway Presbyterian Church. 

The youngest in order of birth in a family of seven children, 
Edmund Drake Halsey, of this notice, was born at Rockaway, New 
Jersey, September 11, 1840. He was reared in an atmosphere of 
culture and refinement and as a child was exceedingly precocious. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 131 

He early manifested a great love for reading and his favorite author 
was Shakespeare, with whose plays he was thoroughly famiHar. His 
love of knowledge was encouraged by his father, who promised him 
as a gift each book in the home library as he mastered it. Needless 
to say he soon became owner of nearly all the volumes of his father's 
extensive collection of standard works. He was fitted for college at 
Morristown .■\cademy and at Phillips .Academy, Andover, Massachu- 
setts, and was graduated in the latter institution as a member of the 
class of 1857. In the fall of that year he was matriculated as a 
student in Princeton College. One of his fellow students wrote of 
him as follows : 

I came ver)' soon to know him l)cttcr tlian 1 knew any of liis class- 
mates exce])t two or three. 

lie was tall and spare: (juiet and slow in his movements ordinarily. 
but capable of giving a good account of himself in running and jumping 
and in such general football contests as. in the later fifties, were held on 
the campus. He was best known, however, as one of the ablest men in 
his class; as conquering easily and surely the subjects of the college 
course. My recollection is (|uite distinct, that while he was known as a 
fine classical scholar, he was at his best in mathematics and related studies. 
He was graduated seventh in a class of about ninety, took the Philosoph- 
ical Oration, and left Princeton with the reputation that, had he chosen 
to do so, he might have obtained a still higher grade. That Halsey would 
study law everyone took for granted; for everyone believed that he had 
the talents and temperament and character that w'ould make him an able 
counselor. 

Mr. Halsey entered upon the stuiiy of law at Morristown with 
his brother, Samuel S. Halsey. In ."Xugust, 1862, however, his 
reading of law was interrupted by his enlisting as a private in Com- 
pany K, Fifteenth New Jersey Volunteer Infantry. June 19, 1863, 
he was commissioned second lieutenant of Company F, same regi- 
ment, and one month later was made first lieutenant of Company D. 
August 12, 1863, he was mustered and detailed as acting adjutant 
and within a year after the first promotion from the ranks, January 
I, 1864, he was commissioned first lieutenant and adjutant. For one 
year previous to his honorable discharge, January i , i 865, on account 



132 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



of continued ill health, he served almost continually as judge advo- 
cate of courts-martial. His regiment saw hard service and with it 
young Halsey participated in a number of the most important and 
sanguinary battles marking the progress of the war. 1 he historian 
of the regiment speaks of him as follows: 

On the I2th of January, 1865. Edmund D. Halsey left the army. He 
had tendered his resignation, which, after several refusals, was accepted, 
lie was the most industrious worker in the regiment. As adjutant's 
clerk, sergeant-major, and adjutant, his hands were always full. .Ml the 
regimental books were kept by him in the neatest and most orderly 
manner. The reports of the regiment and much of the brigade were kept 
by him. He had for months been division judge-advocate. By this 
appointment he might have claimed exemption from adjutant's duty in his 
own regiment, but preferred to do double service rather than to have any 
confusion in his office papers, ami a novice in charge of them for a time. 
Every official act and order of brigade and division headquarters per- 
taining to the Fifteenth New Jersey was associated with Halsey. 

After the close of his military career Mr. Halsey returned home 
and resumed the study of law, being admitted to the New Jersey 
Bar in the November term of 1865, as an attorney, and as counsellor 
in the February term, 1869. With the passage of time he became 
one of the great lawyers of the New Jersey Bar, one who lives in the 
memory of his contemporaries, encircled with the halo of a gracious 
presence, charming personality, profound legal wisdom, purity of 
public and private life, and the quiet dignity of an ideal follower of 
his calling. His legal practice was v'ery extensive and responsible 
and required not only intimate knowledge of the law, but also those 
resources of personal character with which he was so well endowed, 
that is, knowledge of men, acquaintance with affairs and unswerving 
devotion to duty, with scrupulous exactness and precision in the care 
of the numerous litigations entrusted to him. 

Not only did Mr. Halsey excel as soldier and lawyer, but much 
of his time was given to compiling historical works. He became 
tremendously interested in the history of the Revolution and in 
events connected with the two later wars which racked the United 



r.IOGRAPlIICAI. EXCYCLOPEDIA 133 



States. Following is an incomplete list of articles published by liini : 
"The History of Morris County," containing Morris county in the 
Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Rebellion, also the history ot 
the iron industry in the county; "A Biographical Sketch of Colonel 
Joseph Jackson, of Rockaway, New Jersey"; "The Continental 
Army in Morris County in the Years 1779-80"; "Some of the Promi- 
nent Ministers of Morris County"; "Memoir of Rev. James Olney 
A\eriH"; "History of the Washington Association"; "Rockaway 
Jownship in the War of the Rebellion"; "The Gallant Fifteenth," 
and a "Biographical Sketch of Henry G. Darcy." 

He was a life member of the \ew York and New Jersey His- 
torical Societies and secretary ami later treasurer of the Washington 
.Association of New Jersey. 1 le was a member of the Loyal Legion, 
a member of the Society of the Army of the Potomac, and of the 
Grand Army of the Republic. In 1896 he joined the New Jersey 
Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. As 
a practical engineer he took part in the work of cimmission which 
settled the boundary between New Jersey and New York. In 1868 
he became a director in the National Iron Bank of Morristown, of 
which reliable financial institution he was president at the time of his 
demise, in 1896. He was likewise a director in the Morristown Gas 
IJght Company and a manager of the Morris County Savings Bank. 
He was one of the trustees of the Morris County Children's Home 
and for a long period of years was a trustee of the Rockaway Pres- 
byterian Church, in which he was superintendent of the Sabbath 
School for four years. 

May 27, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 1 lalsey to 
Miss Mary Halsey Darcy, a daughter of Henry Gray and .Anne 
Mackenzie (Drake) Darcy. Two children survived their father: 
Edmund Drake Jr., who was graduated in Princeton College in 1894 
and who died in December, 1901, after a long illness; and Cornelia 
Van Wyck, a graduate of Bryn Mawr, who married, in 1903, iVed- 
eric Rogers Kellogg, a prominent member of the New York Bar. 



134 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

.Mrs. Halsey survives her honored husband and is now Hving in 
Morristown, New Jersey. 

Edmund Drake Halsey left an indelible impression on the public 
life of Morris county. No citizen of the community was ever more 
respected and no man ever more fully enjoyed the confidence of the 
people or more richly deserved the esteem in which he was held. In 
his lifetime his fellow citizens, recognizing his merit, rejoiced in his 
advancement and in the honors to which he attained, and since his 
death they have cherished his memory, which remains as a blessed 
benediction to all who knew him. Plonorable in business, loyal in 
citizenship, charitable in thought, kindly in action, true to every trust 
confided to his care, his life was the highest type of Christian man- 
hood. Endowed by nature Avith high intellectual qualities, to which 
were added the discipline and embellishments of culture, his was a 
most attractive personality. 




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CALVIN B. OK C LIT 



A CHRISTIAN, who was guideii on his path through lile by 
the tenets of his rehgion, a devoted husband and kind father, 
a business man of sterling integrity and a citi/en who took his civic 
obligations seriously, were traits embodied in the late Calvin Barber 
Orcutt, who died January 30, 191 1. He was born in Wyoming, 
New York, September 5, 1847, f'^'-' son of Phineas C. and Sophronia 
(Barber) Orcutt. Both parents were of good old New England 
stock of \'ermont and Connecticut, and he inherited from them those 
traits of character which played so conspicuous a part in his long ant! 
successful career. 

His early education was derived from the common school, and 
later he entered the academy at Wyoming called Milibury College. 
In "An Old Friend's Tribute," which was printed in "The Wyoming 
Reporter" shortly after his death, there is this account of his early 
days: "When a small boy he was janitor in the old Academy. 
W^hen he made his first application for the position he was told he 
was too small for the work, that he would be apt to turn the bell 
over when he rang it, but little Calvin thought he was equal to all 
requirements, and his perseverance got him the job. He always rang 
the last bell exactly five minutes to the stroke, then scudded down the 
stairs ami took his seat for chapel exercises at the proper moment. 
A little Latin and half through Arithmetic, he was not under the 
requirements of the present system of education in the state of New 
York and did not have to 'pass.' After going to New York City he 
stutiied percentage and brokerage by himself. We remember his 
being at the family wood pile on Saturday mornings before sunrise, 
crowing like Chanticler. We remember he cut and piled a full cord 
one Saturday and he was about three and a half feet high and the 
pile was four feet. Older boys liked always to include him in their 
company on account of his cheery, courageous and helpful presence. 



136 I'.IOGRAPHICAL EXXYCLOPEDIA 

Calvin was a good Sunday school scholar and he never gave up the 
habit of attendance there." 

He began his business career with a wholesale drug house, but 
later entered the employ of Fisk &: Hatch, the well-known bankers 
of New York City, who dealt largely in government securities. His 
rise was rapid. The firm was financing the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- 
way and the late Collis P. Huntington was interested in the enter- 
prise. It was the latter who selected Mr. Orcutt to have charge of 
the marketing of the coal produced along the route, which came to 
Tidewater at Newport News, Virginia. A large business was built 
up and later when the Legislature made it necessary to sever the coal 
agency from the railroad company, the Chesapeake & Ohio Coal 
Agency Company was organized, and Mr. Orcutt became its presi- 
dent. But his business interests were not confined to this single field. 
He was one of the organizers of the Newport News Ship Building 
& Dry Dock Company, and its first president. As such he played a 
prominent part in our naval development. He also served as presi- 
dent of the Newport News Light & Water Company, and of the 
Old Dominion Land Company. As director, he was interested in 
the First National Bank of Newport News and the Seaboard Trans- 
portation Company. 

He manifested deep interest in all projects for the moral and 
intellectual well-being of young men. He was a founder of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, in Elizabeth, which he equipped 
with an up-to-date gymnasium and locker room as a memorial to his 
son, Russell B. Orcutt. But not satisfied with this, he paid the re- 
maining debt of seven thousand dollars on the new building in East 
Jersey street. He was president of the board of tnistees, and in 
1909 served as president of the association. In speaking of his 
death. Spencer A. Vanderveer, the present head of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, said: 

"The death of Mr. Orcutt is a great loss to Elizabeth and will 
be felt keenly, not only by his friends, but by many whom he had 
assisted in his works of charity. While Mr. Orcutt lived, the poor 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 137 

were always provided tor and his greatest satisfaction was in gi\'ing 
to those who needed his help." 

Another institution to which he ga\e both his time and money 
was the EHzabeth Rescue Mission. He helped found it nineteen 
years ago, and his deep interest in it never relaxed. Howard i. 
Scheckler, the superintendent of the mission paiii this tribute to him: 

"He was a man always interested in charity and always ready 
to share his good fortune with others. His only aim in life seemed 
to be to uplift the poor and needy, and if that is so it can be truth- 
fully said that he accomplished his life's purpose." 

Another noble work was his efforts in behalf of the Kli/.abeth 
General Hospital, of which he was a director for over fifteen years, 
and his work for the Home for Aged Women and the Orphan 
.Asylum. "While Mr. Orcutt and I were members of the board ot 
managers," said l.ebbeus B. .Miller, of the General Hospital, "1 
always found him to be a liberal man. He was a useful accessory to 
the board and all his fellow members held a high opinion of him. 
As a neighbor, he was pleasant and popular." "He cannot be praised 
too highly," was the tribute of P. J. Ryan, another associate. "He 
never paraded his charity and was always ready to contribute his 
money if some unfortunate person needed it. The city cannot lose 
very many men of his character." 

He was an elder of the Presbyterian church and superintendent 
of its Sunday school for thirty-five years. Its present Sunday school 
building was largely the result of his liberality. He also gave the 
church its organ as a memorial to George B. Hooker, who for 
twentv vcars was organist. Upon his death the following resolution 
was adopted by the Second Presbyterian Church: 

"Mr. Orcutt united with this church by letter on October 2nd, 
1868. He was made Superintendent of the Sunday school on June 
1 6th, 1875, ^"d was ordained and installed as a ruling elder on Octo- 
ber 30th, 1887. He was one of our most conspicuous, useful and 
honored members, a man who loved his Bible, who believed in 
prayer, who was ever ready to do his part, and whose highest joy 



138 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

was found in helping others. To the church he was a tower of 
strength. Over the Sunday school he presided with a dignity, a 
grace and an efBciency which have seldom, if ever, been excelled. 
In the prayer meeting his presence and words inspired, uplifted and 
comforted. Upon his advice and counsel the members of the session 
had learned to rely. His generous gifts and his helping hand made 
possible many enterprises, which otherwise would never have been 
attempted, while as a personal friend he had few equals. He has left 
a vacancy in both the church and community, which will never be 
lilled, and no one can possibly measure his loss to the circle of the 
home. Happy we, if, following in his footsteps as he followed 
Christ, we, at the last receive as did he, the Master's 'Well Done'." 

Mr. Orcutt, in addition, served as chairman of the finance com- 
mittee of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. 

Despite all these activities, he found time for social recreation 
of the helpful kind. He was a member of the Chamber of Com- 
merce of New York City, the New England Society, and the Con- 
gregational Society in the City of New York, the Society of Naval 
Architects and Marine Engineers of New York, and the Lawyers' 
Club, Automobile Club of America, the Thousand Island and Chip- 
pewa Bay Yacht Clubs, and other organizations. 

"How hard it is to explain or in any way to bring back the 
charm of a person who leaves no adequate record," reads an article 
on the late Richard Watson Gilder, in the March ( 1 9 1 i ) "Century." 
"Much of his life was spent in public activities. He was personally 
known to a great number of people. Yet when we attempt to set 
down something of the combination of vigor and sweetness, the 
virility coupled with a wide charity, which ever sought to find ex- 
cuses for his living fellow men; the enormous capacity for work, 
with an almost equal capacity for play; the strength and humility of 
his character, we feel nigh helpless as though the record were but 
meager. For personality is a strange evasive thing, which words 
spoken or written are dishearteningly inadequate to explain." 

"If these words had been written expressly for Mr. Orcutt," 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 139 

said the one who shared his lot and knew him as no other, "1 would 
consider them most appropriate as they describe him so perfectly." 

A tine tribute to his memory were the words spoken at his 
funeral by his pastor and friend, Rev. E. B. Cobb, D. D. The 
address was as follows : 

"I can think of no more appropriate words in which to give 
expression to what 1 :un sure you all think, than the words of King 
David with reference to Abncr, 'Know ye not that a prince and a 
great man is fallen this day in Israel.' For Mr. Orcutt was truly a 
prince and a great man. First of all he had a 'Princely Mind.' God 
had richly endowed him with that which for want of a better name, 
we call brains. And this intellect with which he had been endowed, 
had been cultivated in one of the best of all schools, the school of 
experience. More quickly than most, he was able to grasp the mean- 
ing of great problems, and to work these problems out through all 
their intricate details. And what he was able thus to grasp and work 
out, he was able also to put down upon paper and to express in 
speech, and his intellect thus disciplined, he further developed by 
continually measuring up to still larger problems, and by constant 
and judicious reading. He had a princely mind, and he had also a 
'Princely Heart.' Indeed if 1 should be called upon to state what in 
my judgment was his most prominent characteristic, I should at once 
name his big, warm, generous, tender and loving heart, a heart which 
always beat in sympathy with others, especially with those who were 
in need, and which was continually impelling his mind to think of 
ways in which to relieve this need, and his hands and his feet and his 
purse to execute these ways. He was a truly liberal man, not ready 
merely to give when asked, but devoting much time and strength 
also in devising new ways in which to give. In the highest, richest, 
sweetest meaning of these words, 'He was an ideal friend — he did a 
Princely Work'." 

"If you should go to Newport News, Virginia, where the 
strength of his business activity was expended, you would see there 
buildings, organizations and institutions, which would at once arrest 



140 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

your attention because of their size and importance, which confess- 
edly are the monuments of his broad vision and indefatigable toil. 
Or if returning to this city (Elizabeth) you should look into the 
church of which he was a ruling elder, and into the Sunday school of 
which for thirty-five years he was the efficient superintendent, you 
would see building, equipment, organization and membership, — an- 
other monument of his consecrated life. Or if you should cross the 
street to the Young Men's Christian Association Building, you 
would find a fine gymnasium, with all modern equipment fitted up by 
Mr. Orcutt in memory of a young son of eighteen who preceded 
him into glory a few years ago. Should you visit the Rescue Mis- 
sion, or go to the Elizabeth General Hospital, where he was one of 
its active managers for many years, or any other of the charitable 
and philanthropic institutions of this city, you would find in them all, 
to a greater or less degree, other monuments of his generous thought. 
Or if you should be permitted to look into the hearts of many in this 
and other communities who have recently suffered financial loss, or 
passed through the deep waters of affliction, or in other ways have 
been in distress, you would find enshrined in them all the name of 
this good man who in quiet and yet numerous ways had ministered to 
them in their times of need. He has left a 'Princely Name.' A good 
name which is more to be desired than great riches — the name of a 
man who feared God and kept His commandments, — who loved his 
fellow men and prayed unto God always, — a name which will grow 
brighter and brighter as removed a little farther from him in time, 
we are the better able to appreciate how great he really was." These 
words spoken at Mr. Orcutt's funeral describe his personal character 
most perfectly. 

He married, in North Granville, New York, on September i8, 
1872, Harriet M., the daughter of Addison and Sarah Melinda 
(Wyeman) Willett. Their married life was most happy. The 
children of the marriage were: Mary Willett Orcutt; Russell Bar- 
ber Orcutt, born October 12, 1883, died October i, 1901; and 
Helen Marguerite Orcutt. 




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U HEEDEK CHAMBERS 



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AI3NER KEEDEK CHAMBERS 



ABNER REEDER CHAMBERS, head of the well-known 
family of that name in Trenton, New Jersey, is a descendant 
of a family which has been identified with the history of the State 
since the latter part of the seventeenth century. The founder of the 
Chambers family in the United States was John Chambers (2), of 
Middlesex county. New Jersey. He was directly descended from 
Robert Chambers, of Sterling, near Edinburgh, Scotland, a Presby- 
terian who, with thousands of others of the same persuasion, suffered 
cruel religious persecutions during the reigns of Charles II. and 
James II. 

John Chambers Sr., John Chambers Jr., Robert Chambers and 
Marion Chambers embarked at Leith, near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 
August, 1685, on the "Henry and Francis," of New Castle, Richard 
Hutton, master. This ship landed at Montrose, Aberdeen and 
Kerkna, in the Orkney Isles, to take on passengers, and from thence 
sailed for East New Jersey. Their object was to land at New 
Perth, now Perth Amboy, the following November. After a long 
and stormy voyage of fifteen weeks, they arrived there, seventy out 
of the two hundred passengers iiaving died during this time of a 
malignant fever. John Chambers Sr. purchased laml in Piscataway 
township in 1686, and in 1702 made further realty purchases. John 
Chambers Jr. located in Old Windsor township, Midtllesex (now 
Washington township, Mercer county), near .AUentown, New Jer- 
sey, in 1705, where he was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and 
later was a delegate to the fust Presbytery in New Jersey, held in 
New Brunswick, 1738. 

Robert, son of J'lhn Chambers (2), married Eli/abetli Ilam- 
mel, daughter of John Hammel Jr., of Mansfield, Burlington 
county, New Jersey. Robert li\ed on the lands inherited from his 
father; in 1760 he bought two hundred and seventy-one acres in old 



142 niUCRAPHICAL E.XCYCLOPEDIA 



Windsor township, Middlesex county, on which he lived, and where 
he died in 1774. 1 his property was inherited by his great-grand- 
son, Abner Reeder Chambers, and is now owned by his great-great- 
great-grandson, Robert A. Chambers, of New York City. Robert 
Chambers was a member of the Presbyterian church at AUentown. 
His will bears the date. May 24, 1774, and was proved the same 
year. His children were: John, William, David, Robert, Mary 
and Elizabeth. The homestead was willed to William, David and 
Robert, and subsequently the latter bought tlie interests held by his 
brothers. 

Captain Robert Chambers, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Ham- 
mel) Chambers, was born July 28, 1758, and was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary War. 

He crossed the Delaware river with General Washington when 
but eighteen years of age, on the night pre\ious to the battle 
of Trenton, December 26, 1776. He participated in the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton, and was with Washington at Valley Forge 
and Morristown. In the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, there 
is a Continental note which Captain Robert Chambers received as 
part pay for services rendered in the Revolutionary army. Captain 
Robert Chambers married, November 22, 1781, Francina, daughter 
of John Reeder, of Ewing township, Mercer county. New Jersey, 
who was a merchant in Trenton, and who had been actively engaged 
in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Because of the failing 
health of his wife, Captain Chambers decided to remove to the home- 
stead in Middlesex county, and at the end of a few years, removed to 
the Crosskeys, where he built five or six houses. He was a scrivener, 
and wrote many contracts and wills. About 1802 he removed to 
Trenton, having purchased of a Frenchman, a residence on the west 
side of Broad street, at that time called Queen street. It was located 
to the south of where the court house now stands. Both house and 
grounds were spacious and beautifully kept. Captain Chambers died 
in Trenton, January 26, 18 13, and his wife died July 18, 18 14. 
Both were members of the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 143 

and were buried near the center of the churchyard. When the pres- 
ent church was built in 1739 the edifice was placed nearer the center 
ol the churchyard, and the graves of Captain and Mrs. Chambers 
and three grandchildren came inside of the northeastern loundation 
wall. It was deemed fitting, therefore, to place their headstones in 
the northeastern outside wall of the church. 

Robert, child of Captain Robert and Francina (Reader) Cham- 
bers, was born July 2, 1788. He was a merchant in Trenton, his 
store being on State street, but on account of ill health he retired from 
business in early life. He was appointed justice of the peace by 
Governor Williamson, the duties of which office he discharged many 
years with signal ability. During this time. Prince Murat, at that 
time a resident of Bordentown, appeared before him in a suit, as de- 
fendant. Mr. Chambers was a director in the Mechanics & Manu- 
facturing Company of 1^-enton. About 18 19 he joined the First 
Presbyterian Church, and was a consistent and active member 
throughout his life. In 1830, by purchase, he added extensively to 
land already owned by him in South Trenton, on what was called the 
White Horse Road. In 1854 he had it laid out in village lots, build- 
ing three three-story houses on the corner of South Broad and Cass 
streets. The corner house contained a store, the next was a dwelling, 
and the third a tavern with a sign-post "Chambersburg Hotel." 
This was really the beginning of Chambersburg, now a part of Tren- 
ton. A year or two later he built a woolen mill on the southeast 
corner of Broad and Coleman streets, now Beatty street. This was 
occupied bv Yates, Worthley & Company until it was destroyed by 
fire. Mr. Chambers also built five or six houses on the west side of 
Broad street, and about the same date built a cracker factory on the 
southwest corner of .Adaline and Coleman streets. Fie owned land 
in Princeton, where he opened Hamilton and Chambers streets. 
About 1 8 14 he bought the property on the east side of South Broad 
street, Trenton. He was one of the founders of the Second Pres- 
byterian Church, formerly located in the lower part of South Tren- 
ton, now at the corner of Market and Mercer streets. He, with 



144 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

fourteen other members of the First Presbyterian Church, left this 
church, then under the pastoral care of Rev. John Hall, D. D., to 
establish the Second Presbyterian Church. This was once occupied 
by the Free Will Baptist congregation, which was dissolved and 
the building sold to the Presbyterians. Mr. Chambers remained 
in this church some years, attending faithfully all the meetings of 
whatever nature. After the church had become successfully estab- 
lished, Mr. Chambers returned to the membership in the first church, 
that he might be with his family, who had always remained in it. 
He married Catherine Van Dyke, daughter of Abner and Margaret 
(Van Dyke) Houghton, of Hopewell, Hunterdon county. New 
Jersey. Children: i. Theodore Van Dyke, who lived to the age 
of fifty-two years. 2. Margaret M., married Dr. Edwards Hall, 
and had children: Charlotte C, unmarried; Sarah F., married Dr. 
Eugene Austin. 3. Abner Reeder, see forward. Three children 
who died in early childhood. 

The paternal ancestors of Mrs. Chambers were among the early 
settlers of Hopewell township and its vicinity. On the maternal side 
she was directly descended from Jan Thomassen Van Dyke, who, 
with his six sons, came from Amsterdam, Holland, to New Amster- 
dam, now New York City, in 1652. With others they obtained a 
grant of land from the Dutch governor and permission to form a 
colony, casting lots in order to decide their different portions; this 
was the origin of the city of Brooklyn. Catherine Van Dyke 
(Houghton) Chambers was a great-granddaughter of Ruloffe Van 
Dyke, who was delegate from Somerset county to the Provincial 
Congress of New Jersey, organized October 4, 1775. Upon the ad- 
journment of this congress he was "appointed on the Committee of 
Safety to act for the public welfare of this Colony in the recess of 
Congress." He was also on the Committee of Correspondence. 

Abner Reeder, son of Robert and Catherine Van Dyke 
(Houghton) Chambers, was born November 13, 1822, and died 
January 23, 1908. After attending the common schools he ::ook an 
academic course and then became associated with his father in the 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 145 

management of his extensive estate. Upon the death of his father 
he came into possession of a large part of the estate, and while he 
supervised this personally, he employed competent men to serve 
under him. For many years he was a director in the Trenton Bank. 
He contributed largely to the development of Chambersburg, erect- 
ing many stores and residences prior to its annexation to Trenton. 
Politically he was a Republican, but was never an office-holder, pre- 
ferring to attend to his private business, and having full confidence 
in his fellow men to enact and enforce the proper laws. He was a 
member of the First Presbyterian Church and served faithfully as 
a trustee for many years. He was a member of the Sons of the 
Revolution and a charter member of the 1 renton Country Club. 
.Mr. Chambers married Margaret A., daughter of John and Mar- 
garet (Bogart) Waydell, of New York City, who died April i, 
1906. Children : i. Catherine Houghton. 2. Robert, a member of 
the New York Stock Exchange, who died February 7, 1909. He 
married, February 17, 1892, Josephine B. Singer, who died Novem- 
ber 10, 1909, leaving one son, Robert A. 3. Margaret Waydell, 
unmarried. 4. Sarah Frances, unmarried. 5. Abner Reeder Jr., see 
forward. 6. Mary Elizabeth, married, November 19, 1891, Rob- 
ert N. Oliphant and has children: Abner Chambers, Frances, Emma 
Coulter, Roberta, Fidelio H. and Margaret Chambers. 7. Joseph- 
ine, married, July 8, 191 2, Joseph H. Tuttle, of New York Cit)'. 

.\bner Reeder Jr., son of Abner Reeder and Margaret A. 
(Waydell) Chambers, was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He was 
a student at the State Model School, and then attended the Bethle- 
hem Preparatory School prior to matriculating at Lehigh University. 
At the end of one year of the regular course at this university, he 
was obliged to discontinue his studies for a time by reason of illness, 
and later decided upon a special course at Yale University, llpon 
the termination of this he supplemented it by a course at Eastman's 
Business College at Poughkcepsie, New York. Two years were 
then spent in the New York University Law School, anti while at this 
institution he was a member and treasurer of the Delta Chi legal 

NC-IO 



146 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

fraternity. Several years were passed in the west, attending to busi- 
ness matters in that section of the country, and then the condition 
of his father's health necessitated his return to the east. He took 
charge, in Trenton, of his father's business affairs, and then became 
interested in the organization of The Superior Fire Linings Com- 
pany, for the manufacture of fire bricks, blocks, tiles and fire mortar 
for furnaces, cupolas, boilers and pottery kilns. A few years later 
he became the sole owner of this company, conducting it under the 
firm name of A. Reeder Chambers. Mr. Chambers is a member of 
the Trenton Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturers' Asso- 
ciation of New Jersey. His association with other organizations is 
as follows: Trenton Republican Club; Trenton Club; Trenton 
Countiy Club; Young Men's Christian Association; Philadelphia, 
Trenton & New York Deeper Waterways' Association, and Amer- 
ican Ceramic Society. 

Mr. Chambers was married, June i, 1909, to Eleanor Grier, 
daughter of Rev. Isaac Matheson and Frances Graham (Linton) 
Patterson. He is a member and trustee of the First Presbyterian 
Church, of Trenton, New Jersey, and is the surviving executor of his 
father's estate. 



JAMES HENRY HARRISON 



JAMES HENRY HARRISON, a prominent member oi the 
New Jersey Bar, was born August 13, 1S78, at Caldwell, 
Essex county. New Jersey. He is the son of George B. and Eliza- 
beth C. (Gould) Harrison, and both paternally and maternally is of 
distinguished antecedents. 

His paternal ancestor, Richard Harrison, of West Risby, 
Cheshire, England, emigrated to America in 1644, with his sons, 
Richard and Samuel, and daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and be- 
came a member of the New Haven Colony, where he took the oath 
of allegiance and became a freeman. In 1667-68, Sergeant Richard 
Harrison was one of the body of settlers who left New England for 
what was then called Ochter Cull (New or East Jersey) and founded 
what has become the city of Newark and the adjacent towns of 
Orange and Caldwell. The family has been prominent in the up- 
buikling of New Jersey from the days of its original settlement. 

Ihe boyhood and early youth of Mr. Harrison were passed in 
Caldwell. He attended the local high school and the Montclair 
High School, where he prepared for admission to the College of 
New Jersey, at Princeton, and he was graduated from Princeton 
Uni\'ersity in 1899. The following year he became master at St. 
James's School, Hagerstown, Maryland, and later head master. 1 le 
soon discovered that the opportunities there offered were not com- 
measurable with his ambitious desires and he determined to seek a 
broader field in which to give them greater scope. He decided to 
make the study and practice of law his life work and entered vigor- 
ously upon his studies in the New York Law School, from which he 
was graduated in 1905, and was admitted to practice at the New 
York Bar. The previous year (1904) he had iiecn admitted to 
practice at the New Jersey Bar as an attorney, and in 1907 was ad- 
mitted as counsellor. He became a member of the firm of Munn & 



148 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Church, counsellors-at-law, at No. 800 Broad street, Newark, New 
Jersey, and at once displayed abiHty of the highest order. His 
career has been successful, and he has commanded the confidence and 
respect of a large and intelligent clientage. As an indication of his 
ability and the confidence which he has inspired may be cited the fact 
that on April 13, 191 1, he was appointed county counsellor of Essex 
county. 

Politically he is a Republican and has been prominently identi- 
fied with the affairs of the Republican party in Essex county. He 
has been for several years a member of the Republican County Com- 
mittee of Essex county. Possessed of qualities of leadership and 
commanding the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, he has 
been honored by election to the Borough Council of the borough of 
Caldwell and served as Mayor of that town from 1908 to 19 10. 
During his incumbency of this office many improvements were 
planned and consummated. In the field of commercial advancement 
and in financial circles he has also become a factor and his advice 
and counsel are sought by important institutions. 

He is a member of the boards of directors of the Caldwell Na- 
tional Bank and of the Essex National Bank, of Montclair, New Jer- 
sey. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, of Caldwell, 
of which one of his ancestors was a founder and which has counted 
amongst its membership several generations of his forbears. He 
is a member of the Princeton Club of New York, the Cannon Club 
of Princeton, the Montclair Club, Essex County Lawyers' Club and 
the Down Town Club of Newark. 






971 (A /<^r^>^-^5?^«z^ 



Z~.«/Krf-~.v/' />«.' iV 



m:wion doremus 



L'S, son of Peter Thomas and Rachel 

iJoremus, was bom March 20, 1S64, at 

Mountain View), " During his 

■ ied the country sclu/' .- ■,, .'acquanac (now 

• Tsey, and, after his Hfteenth year, entered the 

ss College of Newark, New Jersey, where he 

iths; then he carried on, by his own efforts, his busi- 

Coleman's Business College, ot Newark, New 

..uuated from that institution after a course of 

;.i his graduation he accepted a clerkship with the 

i't I'ransportation Company, of Newark, remaining 

leaving the above firm he became bookkeeper 

ii, leather muir.; i.u tu .r, •'■ Newark, New Jer- 

vear Mr. T n's business and 

.rued to his h ^ .v Jersey, remain- 

innths, then a -i with Hendrickson 

rure and h. .^rs, in Red Bank, New 

hat firms* 1 a half years. On Janu- 

-. DoreiT ' Albert T., started a 

that was he largest mercantile 

re; the H' ipuratcd In 1906, with Albert 

president i)oremus as vice-president and 

' ieorge C. l^opping as secretarj'. The same year 

'oremus, with Hon. Edmund \ViI>>on R. S. Merritt 

ick, organized the Land " >, of Red 

;'any was incorporateiP ■ .ii Edmund 

; R. S. Merritt, pre-^ )oremus, vice- 

.casurer; W. H. Sm v , ihese men being 

lat company. 
Mus is prominent in the hnnrc. 1..1 ■ ' Red Bank, 



NEWTON DOR EMUS 



NEWTON DORElMUS, son of Peter Thomas and Rachel 
Ann (Terhune) Dorenius, was born March 20, 1864, at 
Mead's Basin (now Mountain View), New Jersey. During his 
early years he attended the country schools of Pacquanac (now 
Pequannock), New Jersey, and, after his fifteenth year, entered the 
New Jersey Business College of Newark, New Jersey, where he 
studied three months; then he carried on, by his own efforts, his busi- 
ness training in the Coleman's Business College, of Newark, New 
Jersey, and was graduated from that institution after a course of 
thiX'e months. On his graduation he accepted a clerkship with the 
Stephens & Condit Transportation Company, of Newark, remaining 
w'th them two years; leaving the above firm he became bookkeeper 
for Jacob H. Dawson, leather manufacturer, of Newark, New Jer- 
sey. The following year Mr. Dawson discontinued his business and 
Mr. Doremus returned to his home at Wayne, New Jersey, remain- 
ing there a few months, then accepting a position with Hendrickson 
& Applegate, furniture and hardware dealers, in Red Bank, New 
Jersey; he was with that firm about two and a half years. On Janu- 
ary I, 1 89 1, Mr. Doremus and his brother, Albert T., started a 
grocery business that was very successful and the largest mercantile 
business done here; the firm was incorporated in 1906, with Albert 
T. Doremus as president, Newton Doremus as vice-president and 
treasurer, and (jeorge C. Hopping as secretary. The same year 
(1906) Mr. Doremus, with lion. Edmund Wilson, R. S. Merritt 
and W. II. Smock, organized the Land & Loan Company, of Red 
Bank; that company was incorporated by Attorney-General Edmund 
Wilson, having R. S. Merritt, president; Newton Doremus, vice- 
president and treasurer; W. H. Smock, secretary; these men being 
sole owners of that company. 

Mr. Doremus is prominent in the financial world of Red Bank, 



150 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

as president of the First National Bank of Red Bank, and vice-presi- 
dent of the Red Bank Trust Company. In politics he is an Independ- 
ent. He is a member of several secret societies, namely: Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, Loyal Association and Royal Arcanum, 
being trustee in the latter, and having passed through all of the 
chairs in the above named; beside these he is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Foresters. He shows his interest in out-of-door 
sports by his membership in the North Shrewsbury Ice Yacht Club, 
and Independent Ice Yacht and Boat Club; is also president of the 
Y. M. C. A. of Red Bank, New Jersey, and a member of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Red Bank, and has served his city in the 
position of first president of the reorganized Board of Commerce 
and as a member of the Board of Education. 

Mr. Doremus was married, February 17, 1890, at Red Bank, 
to Carrie Louise, daughter of Captain John P. and Phoebe (New- 
man) White. Mr. and Mrs. Doremus' children are: i. John Clin- 
ton, born May 12, 1893. 2. Phoebe Louise, born November 5, 
1896. 3. Thomas Peter, born April 29, 1899. 4. Burton Terhune, 
born January 9, 1901. 5. Helen Idell, born February 15, 1903. 



SAMUEL RICHARDS 



THERE is probably no one man, in the entire State ot New 
Jersey, who has been more closely identified with the devel- 
opment of the southeastern portion of the State, than the late 
Samuel Richards, who, as originator of the Camden & Atlantic Rail- 
road and as president of the Camden & Atlantic Land Company, was 
mainly instrumental in calling into existence Atlantic City and the 
well-known resort of Ventnor, a little to the south of Atlantic City. 
Owen Richards, the American progenitor of the family which 
was so ably represented by Samuel Richards, came to America with 
his wife and several children prior to 1718. The estate upon which 
he settled was close to the present town of Weaverstown. He was 
twice married, his children being the issue of the first marriage. 
Through the marriage of his granddaughter Mary, daughter of his 
son William, to John Ball, the family became allied with the Ball 
family of which Mary Ball, the mother of George Washington, was 
a member. William Richards, father of Mary (Richards) Ball, 
was a man of influence in his day and held the office of constable. 
William, his son, early became identified with the iron industry. He 
was the manager, and subsequently became the sole proprietor of 
Batsto Iron Works, New Jersey, built in 1766, the second in New 
Jersey, which was one of the most celebrated plants of its kind in 
America. Cannon and ball were manufactured there for the Conti- 
nental army, and the place was one of considerable importance to 
the colonies. Because of this a part of the British fleet was sent to 
destroy it, and this effort resulted in the battle of Sweetwater. He 
was at one time the owner of the property known as the "Ship 
Tavern," located on Lancaster Turnpike, near the present site of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad station, called Whiteland. During the early 
days of the Revolution, he enlisted for military service, having been 
Cfimmi'jsioncd bv the Pennsylvania Assembly, June rt. 1775, "Stantl- 



152 r.IOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ard Bearer to the Second Battalion of Associators in the County of 
Chester for the Protection of this Province Against All Hostile 
Enterprises and for the Defence of American Liberty." This orig- 
inal commission is in the possession of his great-grandson, S. Bartram 
Richards, of Philadelphia, as is also the "oath of allegiance," which 
William Richards took, May 30, 1778. The first-mentioned docu- 
ment bears the signature of the Speaker, John Morton, who, a year 
later, became one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
The oath of allegiance, signed by T. Taylor, reads: "I Do hereby 
Certify, That William Richards, of Whiteland, Hath voluntarily 
taken and subscribed the OATH of Allegiance and Fidelity, as 
directed by an ACT of General Assembly of Pennsylvania, passed 
the 13th day of June, A. D. 1777. Witness my hand and seal, the 
30th day of May, A. D. 1778." Another descendant in Philadel- 
phia possesses a memorandum, in the handwriting of William Rich- 
ards, headed : "Articles sent Wm. Richards, when he went to Camp, 
Aug. 13, 1776." This reads as follows: "i bedquilt, i blankit, 1 
pillow, I pare Sheets and Pillow case, 2 knives and forks, 3 spoons, 
I teapot, I bole, i tin sugar-dish, i dish, 2 plates, 2 cups and sasers, 
I tin-cup, I table cloth, 2 towels, peaper Case and Box and Clothes 
Brush, 2 Cote, 2 Jackets, pairs briches, 5 stokes, 5 pare thread 
stokin, I pare ditto worsted, i ditto yarn, i pare gaiters, i doble 
Morning gound, i small trunk, i vial camphire in the till Rags, 
peper, all spice, 4 poket hankerchies, i nite cap, i Bible, i brisket 
beef, I box shaved ditto, i ganion, i box wafers, pen, ink, sage, 
balm, sacepan, i gridiron, i pewter bason." He had eleven children 
by his first marriage, and eight by his second. His daughter Re- 
becca married John, a son of General John Sevier, the first governor 
of Tennessee. His son, Thomas Richards, built the Jackson Glasa 
Works, and was the largest stockholder of the Camden & Atlantic 
Railroad Company, the first meeting for the organization of which 
being held at his house; he was the owner of the old Joseph Bonaparte 
estate, at Bordentown, New Jersey, known as "Point Breeze"; he 
married Anna Bartram, a granddaughter of John Bartram, the most 



BIOGRAPHICAL EN' CYCLOPEDIA 153 

celebrated botanist of colonial days, and the founder of "Bartram's 
Gardens," in West Philadelphia, now the property of the munici- 
pality; they had ten children, one of them being Samuel Richards, 
the subject of this review. Jesse, eleventh child of William Rich- 
ards, established large glass works at Batsto, and at his death was the 
owner cf a tract of land in that section of more than forty thousand 
acres; he was acti\ e in public affairs and served in the New Jersey 
Assembly, i8;,7-38 ; his son, Thomas Haskins Richards, was a mem- 
ber of the New Jersey Assembly, 1841-42, and was in the State Sen- 
ate from 1847 *^o 1849; ^ daughter, Elizabeth Haskins Richard, 
married George Augustus Bicknell, who became noted as a judge and 
as a statesman, and she was the mother of Rear-Admiral George 
Augustus Bicknell, of the United States Navy, and of the Rev. Jesse 
Richards Bicknell, assistant rector at St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, 
Maryland. Benjamin Wood Richards, eldest child of William Rich- 
ards and his second wife, was the senior partner in the firm of Rich- 
ards & Bispham, the largest commission house in Philadelphia, was 
at the head of many of the most important financial enterprises of 
his time in Philadelphia, active in charitable work, served in munici- 
pal legislature, in the State House of Representatives and the State 
Senate, founder and first president of Girard Trust Company, an 
early manager of the Eastern Penitentiary, and served several terms 
as mayor of Philadelphia; several of his sons served in the Civil 
War. George Washington, the youngest child of William Richards, 
was prominently identified with mercantile pursuits, with manufactur- 
ing interests, and other corporations of importance, in many of which 
he held office. 

Samuel Richards, son of Thomas anil Anna (Bartram) Rich- 
ards, was born August 15, I 8 18, and died February 21, 1895. He 
was for many years engaged in the glass industry, being the owner 
of the Jackson Glass Works. During the early portion of his life 
he was engaged in mercantile pursuits in his native city, Philadelphia, 
where his life was chiefly passed. In 1852 his foresight and genius 
for business evolved what was then an ambitious program — the 



154 I'.IOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

building of a railroad to Absecon Beach, on the New Jersey coast. 
This eventuated in the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, and the trans- 
forming of a desert waste into the most noted summer resort m the 
world — Atlantic City. More than any other man he was responsible 
for this notable result, he having been active in the incorporation of 
the road, and one of the master spirits in its construction. For some 
years he was president of the company. It was largely through his 
influence also that the Camden & Atlantic Land Company was 
formed and chartered in 1853. Of this corporation he was presi- 
dent, serving in that capacity for a long period; until his death, more 
than forty years later. 

It was Mr. Richards also who planned and largely brought 
about the building of another railroad to the famous resort in ques- 
tion, the Atlantic City Railroad, now under the direction of the 
Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company, the construction of 
which, in an incredibly short space of time, was effected in the face 
of almost insuperable difficulties. As president of the Camden & 
x\tlantic Land Company, Mr. Richards was the leading spirit in the 
building up of the well-known resort of Ventnor, to the south of 
Atlantic City. His business activity in other directions was equally 
lemarkable. To quote from a memoir of Mr. Richards, written 
shortly after his death by Richard B. Osborne, a lifelong business 
associate, the writer said: "It was his privilege, from years of ofl"]- 
cial association and from intimate and valued acquaintance with the 
subject of this memoir, extending over a period of forty-three years, 
to personally make some record of the important railroad work 
undertaken by him in conjunction with a few other well-known citi- 
zens of New Jersey, the results of which have opened wider fields of 
commerce to his native city, have made Philadelphia the emporium 
of travel from all states of the Union, 'en route to the open sea,' and 
have revolutionized all Southern Jersey, converting her unprofitable 
lands into sites of thriving towns and gardens of fruit and flowers. 
It is most proper and legitimate to connect Samuel Richards promi- 
nently with these results, because while others were talking about the 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 155 



future project he resolutely acted as the primal mover for the actual 
construction of the original pioneer line from Philadelphia to the 
wide Atlantic Ocean." 

Samuel Richards married, November 29, 1849, Elizabeth 
.\[oore, born June 6, 1825, died July 19, 1903, a daughter of John 
Barker and Hannah (Moore) Ellison. Children: i. Mary, who 
died in infancy. 2. Thomas John, of Merion. 3. Samuel Bartrar-, 
president of the Camden & Atlantic Land Company. He is mayor 
of Ventnor, New Jersey, where he is the owner of a large quantity 
of real estate, and has served in this office for many years. He has 
two children: Mrs. Edmund Cooper Hoyt, of Merion; and Mrs. 
Joseph B. Townsend, third, of No. 2101 Pine street, Philadelphia. 






FRANKLIN DYE 



FRANKLIN DYE, at present and for over twenty-five years 
past secretary of the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, 
and holding a number of other responsible offices, is a representative 
of a family the first member of which in this country came over with 
the earlv settlers from Holland and France, and whose descendants 
are scattered throughout the United States. In the Richmond 
county, Staten Island, Deeds D, 131, mention is made of the fact 
that Francis Bodine married Maria Dey (as the name was then 
spelled), daughter of James Hance Dey, of Staten Island. From 
thence he removed to Cranbury, Middlesex county. New Jersey, 
about 1736 or 1737. Vincent Bodine, April 14, 1761, purchased a 
tract of land from his father-in-law, Lawrence Dey. This land was 
at that time and is at present (19 13) known as the "Old Church 
Farm," from the fact that the first church in all that section of the 
State was there erected. The farm is near the Old Red Tavern and 
east of Hightstown, Mercer county, New Jersey, and has been 
almost continuously in the possession of the Dye or Dey family until 
the present time. The Dutch records give the Dey coat-of-arms with 
the motto, Sctiiper fidelis. 

Josiah Dey, grandfather of Franklin Dye, was a direct descend- 
ant of the Deys of Staten Island and New York City, in honor of 
whom Dey street in New York City is named. Subsequent to his 
honorable discharge from the service after the war of the American 
Revolution, he was a resident for a number of years of Mercer 
countv. New Jersey, as was also Jane Chambers, whom he subse- 
quently married. Later they removed to Middlesex county and set- 
tled on the Millstone, east of Hightstown, and at their death were 
buried in the cemetery connected with the Baptist church of that 
town, of which they were members. Among his children were: 
Peter Walsh, of whom further; Elias, who was one of the founders 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 157 



of the Second Presbyterian Church, of Cranbury, New Jersey, and a 
ruling elder in it until old age. He was a member of the State Legis- 
lature in i860. 

Peter Walsh Dye, son of Josiah and Jane (Chambers) Dye, 
was born near Hamilton Square, Mercer county. New Jersey, De- 
cember 15, 1805. He was a progressive farmer and influential busi- 
ness man in Cranbury, Middlesex county, and was a member of the 
Legislature in 1851. He also was a ruling eider in the Second Pres- 
byterian Church of Cranbury. He removed with the younger mem- 
bers of his family to Trenton, Mercer county. New Jersey, about 
1865. He married Ann Eliza Bodine, born March 20, 1806, 
daughter of James and Gitty A. (Wyckoff) Bodine, of Cranbury. 
James Bodine was a soldier in tlie war of the Revolution, and was 
the son of Vincent Bodine, mentioned previously. During the deten- 
tion of Washington's army at Cranbury, as per his report to Con- 
gress, July I, 1778, General Latayette visited \'incent Bodine and 
his family and was their guest at least for a da\, as General Lafay- 
ette had been intimately acquainted with the Bodines of France. 
"In France the Bodine family has borne an honorable part in war 
and peace, and has given to the world the noted political thinker 
and philosophical reasoner, Jean Bodin, the father of political 
science, if Machiaveili be cxccpteil. ant! the author of "Livres de la 
Republique." Sir William Hamilton (1729-1803) said of him 
that, from the time of Aristotle until Montesquieu, the six books of 
Bodin's formed the ablest and most remarkable treatise extant on 
the philosophy of go\'crnment and legislation." The children of 
Peter Walsh and Ann I'.li/.a (Bodine) Dye were: Morgan, (.ic- 
ceased; Franklin, of whom further; Peter Hampton, who was in 
active service throughout the Civil War, and is now a resident of 
California; Elias, deceased, who married Emmcline Duncan, daugh- 
ter of Andrew Duncan, of Cranbury Xeck; Joseph Chambers, who 
served as a member of the Common Council of the city of Trenton; 
Levi, a dry goods merchant of Irenton, deceased; James W.; Cor- 
nelia, who married Alfrcil M. Perrinc. of Cranburv, Xcw Jersey; 



158 LIIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Gertrude Ann, who after the death of her sister Corneha became 
the second wife of Mr. Perrine; Jane E., who married Spafford W. 
Davison, of Cranbury, and who now resides in Trenton, New Jersey. 
Franklin Dye, second son and child of Peter Walsh and Ann 
Eliza (Bodine) Dye, was born on the old Church farm, near Cran- 
bury, Middlesex county, New Jersey, April i, 1836. In early life 
he united with the Second Presbyterian Church of Cranbury, 
Middlesex county, and in early manhood became conductor of its 
music, as later for eighteen years he was in charge of the music of 
the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, Mercer county. He re- 
ceived an excellent education in public and private schools, and 
supplemented this by home study. He took an active part in enlist- 
ing soldiers for service during the Civil War, and was active through 
that dark period in securing funds and supplies for the Sanitary and 
Christian Commissions, and was also secretary of a Union League 
during the war. Being himself a Sunday school teacher and super- 
intendent, in 1 886, he, with two other gentlemen, Sunday school 
workers, organized the Jamesburg Sunday School Convention, in- 
tended for an annual outing for the Sunday schools of surrounding 
country, and for addresses on Sunday school management and work, 
interspersed with Sunday school songs. This movement was popular 
from the start, the first meeting having an attendance of over 3,000. 
These conventions were continued for thirty-five years under the 
original management, when they dissolved the organization. He 
was actively engaged in the cultivation of his Mercer county farm 
until I 886, when the New Jersey State Board of Agriculture elected 
him its treasurer, and in 1887 secretary, a position to which he has 
been reelected from time to time until his present term, which will 
expire in 19 16, when he will have made a continuous service of thirty 
years. He was instrumental in bringing to a successful issue the 
efforts of the State Board of Agriculture to improve our roads by 
State aid, using stone in their construction (see Report of State 
Board of Agriculture, page 45, 1903-04), organizing for the pur- 
pose a State Road Improvement Association, of which he was made 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 159 

secretary. He is also secretary of the State Commission on Tubercu- 
losis in Animals. Having secured an amendment to the law in 1890 
enabling the State Board of Agriculture to hold Farmers' Institutes, 
the executive committee elected him director, and for more than 
twenty years he has gone about the State during the fall and winter 
months, encouraging the farmers to higher ideals, better methods 
and greater success in their calling. In its early history he was chap- 
lain ol the New Jersey State Grange, of which he has been a mem- 
ber for many years. In November, 191 i, he was elected president 
of the American Association of Farmers' Institute Workers, an 
organi7ation covering the L nited States, Canada, Porto Rico and 
Hawaii. Its object is to improve the agriculture ot the countries 
named, and the methods for its accomplishment. He was one of 
the organizers and a director of the Interstate Fair Association, and 
secretary of the Mercer County Board of Agriculture, which he. 
with others, organized in 1883. On his removal to Mercer county 
he was elected a member of the executive committee of the Mercer 
County Bible Society, which still exists; was chosen ruling elder in 
the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, with which he united; and 
secretary of the Mercer County Suniiay School Association for a 
number of years, which he built up from reporting only fourteen 
schools to reporting one iumdred and one evangelical schools to the 
State association. He is a member of the National Geographical 
Societv. Washington, D. C, a life member of the American Bible 
Societv, the American Tract Society, and of the American Sunday 
School Union. 

Prior to his connection with the State Board of Agriculture, 
Secretar\- Dye increased the revenues of his farm, for a number of 
years, by a series of singing classes which he conducted in surround- 
ing neighborhoods during the winter evenings. These were both 
popular and useful. Later, at the urgent request of the trustees of 
the district schools adjoining his farm, he consented to teach them 
two successive winters, but this requiring day service interfered too 
much with his farm work and was not longer continued. 



160 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

He married (iirst) Sarah Brown Hewitt, born in North Ston- 
ington, Connecticut (where they were married), daughter of Benja- 
min and Sarah Brown Hewitt; the children of this marriage were: 
Jennie Davison, who married Arthur Paries Smith, of Springfield, 
Massachusetts; Sarah F., who married Frank H. Barr, of 1 renton, 
New Jersey. He married (second) Anna Stevens, daughter of 
James S. Stevens, of Slackwood, between Trenton and Lawrence- 
ville, New Jersey. He married (third) June 24, 1902, in Toronto, 
Canada, Elizabeth Draycott, daughter of Thomas and Margaret 
Draycott, of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, who subse- 
quently removed to Muskoka, Canada. On his removal from his 
farm to Trenton, in 1887, he identified himself with the F'ourth 
Presbyterian Church, with which he is still connected, and in which 
he is a ruling elder. 

His twenty-se\'en annual reports of the progress of agriculture 
in New Jersey contain a number of his original articles. His unpub- 
lished addresses at Farmers' Institutes and other agricultural gather- 
ings exceed a thousand. He prepared a Hand Book of the State for 
the Chicago World's Exposition, another and larger one for the 
Buffalo World's Exposition, and is the joint author of "Farm Lands 
in New Jersey," published in 19 12. He prepared the first docu- 
ment on Entomology published by the State Board of Agriculture 
(see Report of 1887, pp. 487-535). Professor George T. Hulst 
was appointed State Entomologist the following year. 

In politics Secretary Dye is a Republican. Not being quite 
old enough by law to vote for Fremont and Dayton, he nevertheless 
identified himself with the Republican organization when Kansas 
was the battleground between the Slave State and the Free State set- 
tlers, and did all he could to aid the latter. 



AXGELO H. KNAPP 



ANGELO H. KNAl'l', financier, was for many years a leading 
and influential citizen of Paterson, New Jersey, and his 
activity in business affairs, his cooperation in public interests, and his 
zealous support of all objects that he belit\cd would contribute to 
the material, social or moral improvement of the community, kept 
him in the foremost rank of those to whom the city owes its develop- 
ment and present position as one of the leading metropolitan centers 
of New Jersey. His life was characterized by upright, honorable 
principles, and it also exemplified the truth of the Emersonian philos- 
ophy that "the way to win a friend is to be one." His genial, kindly 
manner won him the high regard and good will of all with whom he 
came in contact, and thus his death was uniformly mourned through- 
out Paterson and the surrounding district. 

A son of John Lewis and Antoinette (Halstead) Knapp, An- 
gelo H. Knapp was born on a farm near Johnson, Orange county, 
New York, the date of his nativity being October lo, i860. He 
w-as reared to maturity on the old homestead farm, in the work and 
management of which he early began to assist his father. He 
attended the common schools of Orange county until he had reached 
his fourteenth year, and at that age he obtained employment in con- 
nection with the local business of the New York, Susquehanna & 
Western railroad, and continued with the above company for sixteen 
years as agent at various stations. For a period of five years he was 
general agent for the company at Paterson, having charge of both the 
passenger and freight business. In 1887 he turned his attention to the 
coal business in Paterson, and in that connection became a member of 
the firm of Van Kirk & Knapp, with yards adjacent to the Susque- 
hanna tracks, at the corner of Broadway and East Fughteenth street. 
In 1892 he bought up Mr. Van Kirk's interest in the business and 

NC— 11 



162 IIIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

changed the name of the firm to that of A. H. Knapp & Company. 
For a number of years he was a director and treasurer of the Even- 
ing News Printing Company, and he was one of the organizers of 
the Citizens' Trust Company, in which reliable and substantial insti- 
tution he was a director until death called him from the scene of his 
mortal endeavors. He was elected president of the Passaic Steel 
Company in August, 1906, and served in that capacity until his 
demise, which occurred October 11, 1906. In politics Mr. Knapp 
was a stalwart Democrat, and, while he did not take an active part 
in public affairs, he was ever on the qui vive to do all in his power to 
forward the best interests of his home community. He was a valued 
and appreciative member of the Hamilton Club, and his religious 
faith was in harmony with the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

September 9, 1891, at Butler, New Jersey, was celebrated the 
marriage of Mr. Knapp to Miss Clara Thurston White, a daughter 
of James and Isabella R. White. To this union was born one son, 
James White Knapp, whose birth occurred July 13, 1892. 

Angelo H. Knapp was a noble illustration of what independ- 
ence, self-faith, self-reliance and lofty ideals can accomplish in Amer- 
ica. He was absolutely self-made. No one helped him in a financial 
way, and he was practically self-educated. He died right in the 
prime of life and it is hard to estimate to what heights his business 
ability might have carried him. His deep sympathy and innate 
kindliness of spirit make his memory an enduring monument more 
ineffaceable than polished marble or burnished bronze. "To live 
in the hearts we leave behind is not to die." 



EUGENE STEVENSON 



EUGENE STEVENSON, whose work as a jurist places Mlm in 
the front rank of representative men of his generation, was 
born in Brooklyn, New York, June 28, 1849. His services to the 
State have been of undoubted importance, and by a Hfe of untiring 
activity and of briUiant achievement he has made a mark upon his 
time not soon to he effaced. 

His ancestry was that of pure Scotch stock, which has been 
noted for its hardihood in facing danger, for its fearless independ- 
ence, and for its intellectual energy. This last trait of ambition in 
the things of the mind is to be found in each generation of the fam- 
ily, leading them to prefer professional to business careers, and win- 
ning for them honorable positions in the plane of mental and spirit- 
ual achievement. 

The founder of the family in America was James Ste\enson, 
the son of a shawl weaver of Paisley, Scotland. He came over in 
the brig "Commerce," in 1774, and had allotted to him a farm near 
the present village of Salem, Washington county. New York. At 
the opening of the Revolution he volunteered for military service, 
and enlisted in a company commanded by Captain Alexander Mc- 
Nitt. An active and influential member and elder of the Presbv- 
terian church at Salem, he took a leading part in all its work. When 
the congregation lost its pastor, Dr. Thomas Clark, he rode on 
horseback through the almost unbroken wilderness to Pequea, near 
Philadelphia, to persuade Dr. James Proudfit to come to Salem as 
Dr. Clark's successor. His efforts, it may be added, were success- 
ful, and Dr. Proudfit became the secontl pastor of the Salem church. 
Mr. Stevenson brought with him from Paisley, Scotland, a large 
library of excellent books and a quantity of line linen, and these 
highly prized heirlooms are still in the possession of the family. 
James Stevenson was a man of unusual culti\'ation as well as a prac- 



164 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

tical man of affairs, and he himself prepared James, his eldest son, 
for college. 

This James Stevenson, the second of the name in the United 
States inherited the love of learning of which his father had given 
evidence. His opportunities were greater, however, and we find him 
passing from one institution to another, acquiring that ripe culture 
which was afterwards to impress its seal upon the mind of a genera- 
tion. His diploma (A. B.) from Queen's (now Rutgers) College 
bears date 1789. He held several positions of distinction in the edu- 
cational world, and won tributes of esteem from men of such stand- 
ing as Dr. Taylor Lewis, Dr. Philip Lindsay, vice-president of 
Princeton College, and Professor Henry Mills, of Auburn Theo- 
logical Seminary. He married Hannah Johnson, of Morris county, 
New Jersey, and they had six children. 

Paul Eugene Stevenson, father of the Eugene Stevenson, con- 
cerning whom this narrative is written, was the fifth child of James 
and Hannah (Johnson) Stevenson, and was born in New Bnms- 
wick, New Jersey, October 14, 1809. Though his early inclination 
led him toward scientific and technical studies, after graduating at 
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, he changed 
the purpose of his life and decided to enter the ministry. He there- 
upon took the course in arts at Union College, graduating A. B. in 
1833, and then entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, from 
which he was graduated as Bachelor of Divinity in 1837. After 
being ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, he became pastor of 
the Presbyterian church in Staunton, Virginia. Two other pastoral 
charges after this had been filled by him with eminent success, when 
he was urged by the presbytery to take the principalship of the 
Luzerne County Presbyterian Institute in Pennsylvania. The insti- 
tution was at the time in a very critical financial condition, and in 
the policy of the presbytery it was important that it should be reestab- 
lished on a secure and influential basis. This Mr. Stevenson suc- 
ceeded in doing in so thorough a way as to exceed the most optimistic 
hopes. Some years later he resigned this post to take another posi- 



IJIOGRAl'llJCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 165 



tion. He continued the work ot teaching until his death, molding 
the minds and shaping the character ot numherless pupils. He mar- 
ried Cornelia, daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Scudder Prince, who 
came of a family distinguished for mental gifts and eminent in many 
lines. They had five children who reached adult age, the third of 
tl'.ese being Vice-Chancellor Stevenson. 

\'ice-Chancellor Eugene Stevenson, whose ancestry we ha\e 
thus outlined, was born with the trend of his character already bent 
toward an intellectual life. He was prepared for college by his 
father and he entered New York University as a sophomore, and 
was graduated A. B. in 1870. He also pursued the study of law in 
the Law Department of the same institution. His degree having 
been taken here, he entered the office of Socrates Tuttle, of Pater- 
son, where he continued his legal studies. In June, 1874, Mr. 
Stevenson was admitted to the bar as attorney, and three years later 
was made counsellor. In 1861 Governor Ludlow appointed him 
Prosecutor of the Pleas for Passaic county. I le served the full term 
of five years, discharging his duties with fidelity and zeal, but has 
ne\ er sought a reappointment. His practice before he was elevated 
to the bench was large and important. He was appointed Vice- 
Chancellor April 16, 1901, for a full term of seven years. In 1908 
he was reappointed, his term expiring in 19 16. In political convic- 
tions he is a Democrat. 

Vice-Chancellor Stevenson married June 11, 1884, Helen, 
daughter of Rev. William Henry and Matilda (Butler) Horn- 
blower, of Paterson, granddaughter of Chief Justice Joseph Coer- 
ton Hornblower, and great-grandilaughter of Josiah Hornblower. 
The first steam engine ever used in the United States had been 
brought by Josiah Hornblower in 1753, and was employed by him 
in the copper mines near Belleville, New Jersey. 



STEPHEN SYLVESTER DAY 



STEPHEN SYLVESTER DAY, a native of New Jersey, and a 
lifelong resident of that State, was born in New Providence, 
June 16, 1850. His parents were Samuel Thomas and Elizabeth 
(Crane) Day, the former a carpenter by occupation, who met with 
a sad affliction by the loss of his eyesight soon after his marriage. 

After a public school education Mr. Day entered the State 
Normal School at Albany, from which he was graduated in Febru- 
ary, 1S76, and from that time for a number of years, he was inti- 
mately associated with the educational interests of his section of the 
State. He commenced teaching on Long Hill, in Morris county, 
and in the fall of 1876 became principal of the public school at 
Scotch Plains, Union county, where he remained until January, 1880. 
He then went to Newark and served eight years as principal of the 
Newton Street Grammar School, after a period of three years in a 
like position in the South Tenth Street School. His professional life 
was marked by signal ability and this combined with perseverance 
brought him well deserved success, which success has followed him 
in his later ventures, when in 1 891 he resigned his principalship in 
Newark and entered the life insurance business. His first position 
in this line was as general agent for the Prudential Life Insurance 
Company in its ordinary branch, which position he held until 1895, 
when he resigned and accepted a similar office with the Mutual Bene- 
fit Life Insurance Company of Newark. Up to 1904 Mr. Day 
conducted business alone, but in that year he formed a partnership 
with Robert B. Cornish, under the firm name of Day & Cornish, 
general agents, and this relationship exists at the present time 

(1913)- 

In politics he has held to the tenets of the Republican party 
until 191 2, when he joined the Progressives, and he is now chairman 
of the Progressive League of Morris county. Mr. Day and family 



j?»TEPHi:^ s^ 



.:, ■->i«;ient . 

Mis pavs. 

• former 

lie loss 



'■■s- lor a 
•Kationa! ' 
i! -' wg on Long Hill, in .^ 
ip principal of the pu' 
he remained until J 
ved eight years as pi...^.t.o ... .. 
after a period of three years in a 
reet School. His professional life 
rhis combined with perseverance 
hich success has followed him 
_ resigned his principalship in 
.; business. His first position 
'^e Prudential Life Insurrince 
•y bran.; uitinn he held v.' 

;iccepteit : ^(.e with the Muti 

.npany (■, Up to 1904 Mr. Day 

'le.but in ■■■■' *^'irmed a pa r*-" --'>-' ■' 

>h, under . of Day & 

his reiati l the pre- 

- ! to the e Republi 

■he Progrc H- is nc^v 



ot the rn»grcb>;' -f Morris cou. 





'.yfo^-KSL^..^ r-iJ^ (\^yh?L>W. 



167 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Day is a 
member of Morristown Lodge, No. i88, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons; Madison Chapter, No. 27, Royal Arch Masons; Ode de St. 
Amand Commandery, No. 12, Knights Templar; is a charter mem- 
ber of Salaam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, having demitted to this organization from Mecca Temple, 
New York. He is also a member of the Tapkaow Club, of Morris- 
town; the New Jersey Historical Society; the Washington Associa- 
tion, and of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the Revolution, 
and of the Board of Trade of Newark. 

He was married, in Newark, New Jersey, May 7, 1879, to 
Hattie A. De Voursney, daughter of Marcus L. and Mary (Baker) 
De Voursney. Mr. and Mrs. Day have had the following children: 
Mabel Baker, born March 27, 1880; Louis De Voursney, born May 
14, 1882; Clarence Mulford, born May 15, 1885; Jessie Made- 
leine, born November 22, 1889, died in April, 1891; Madeleine 
Mastin, born February 21, 1892. The family :u c well known and 
popular socially and Mr. Day has already achieved marked success 
in the insurance field. 



JUDGE ALFRED E. 31ILLS 



JUDGE ALFRED ELMER MILLS, a prominent citizen and 
lawyer of Morristown, was born at Morristown, July 22, 1858, 
and is a son of Alfred and Katharine Elmer (Coe) Mills. He is a 
descendant of Samuel Mills, of Long Island, whose son, Samuel 
Mills, was born in 1720, and died June 17, 1805. He moved to 
New Jersey, and settled in Morris county, becoming a communicant 
of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, May 3, 1765. He 
and his wife, Sarah, had several children, among them Edward, who 
was born in 1749, in Morris county, and died there January 13, 
1827. This Edward Mills served during the Revolutionary War, 
becoming a sergeant of the Eastern Battalion of the Morris county 
militia. He married Phebe Byram (a descendant of John and Pris- 
cilla Alden), and among their children was Lewis, who was born in 
Morristown, New Jersey, January 19, 17S2, and died there March 
5, 1869. Lewis Mills, like his father and grandfather, was a mem- 
ber of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, and became one 
of its elders. He was a very public-spirited man, and took part in 
many public movements, helping to purchase, in 18 16, the land 
which now comprises the historic "Morristown Green"; and in 1825 
being one of a number who invited General de Lafayette to visit 
Morristown, and arranged for the reception in the Frenchman's 
honor. On December 11, 18 17, he married Sarah Ann Este, and 
had several children, among them Alfred, born in Morristown, July 
24, 1827. Mrs. Sarah A. (Este) Mills, born April 30, 1793, died 
Tune 13, 1842, came of distinguished parentage, her father being 
Major Moses Este, an officer in the Revolutionary army, who mar- 
ried Anne Kirkpatrick. a sister of Chief Justice Andrew Kirkpatrick, 
of New Jersey. 

Alfred Mills has been prominently identified with responsible 
offices in the State of New Jersey for many years. In 1851 he re- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 169 



ceived his attorney's license, and in 18^4 his hcense as counsellor, 
and has since practiced at the bar, in association with various talented 
partners at first, and since 1S83, independently. In 1874 he was 
elected mayor of Morristown, having previously, in 1867, been 
appointed Prosecutor of the Pleas for Morris county. He has been 
frequently sought to fill the position of executor, trustee or guardian, 
and he has had many connections with various Morristown banks 
and corporations as director. In his church connections, he became 
vestryman of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, in 1S63; three years 
later became junior warden; and in 1873 became senior warden, 
ser\ing as such to the present day. From 1864 he has attended as a 
deputy at the annual con\-entions of his diocese, and for about 
twenty-five years served on its standing committee. For a number 
of years he was one of the trustees of the General Theological Semi- 
nary, and on June 12, 1883, became a member of the board of man- 
agers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Epis- 
copal Church in the United States, and afterwards upon its reorgani- 
zation, a member of the Board of Missions. In 1874 he was first 
chosen as a deputy to the general convention of the church and since 
that time he has been regularly elected for thirteen consecutive times 
(covering nearly forty years) as one of the lay deputies of his dio- 
cese, representing the diocese of New Jersey in 1874 and after the 
division of the diocese has represented the diocese of Newark (at 
first called the diocese of Northern New Jersey) and at these con- 
ventions has served on many important committees. Bv his mar- 
riage, on September 24, 1857, to Katharine Elmer, daughter of 
Judge Aaron and Katharine (Elmer) Coe, of Westfield, New Jer- 
sey, Alfred Mills had several children, among them being Alfred 
Elmer, who has followed so closely in his father's footsteps, and Ed- 
ward Kirkpatrick Mills, an able lawyer who was at one time a mem- 
ber of the New Jersey Senate. 

Alfred Elmer Mills received his early education in the schools 
of Morristown and the Trinity School at livoli-on-Hudson. He 
entered l*rinceton University in 1878, graduating thence with honors 



170 BIOGRAPHICAL E.XCYCLOPEDIA 

and the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1882, and later received his 
degree of Master of Arts in 18S5. Under his father's able guid- 
ance, he proceeded to master the principles of law at home in Morris- 
town, and has since his admission to the bar as attorney, June, 1886, 
been associated with his father in practice. In June, 1889, Alfred 
Elmer Mills was admitted as counsellor. Public office soon sought 
him, and in 1892 he was appointed counsel for the town of Morris- 
town, serving until 1894. Four years later he became Prosecutor of 
the Pleas for Morris county, his term expiring in 1903. The appoint- 
ment of President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Morris 
county was then tendered to him. He accepted the office and for ten 
years (covering two successive terms of five years each) has served 
in that position. 

Alfred Elmer Mills is one of the board of managers of the 
Morris County Savings Bank. In 1896 he was made treasurer of 
the Washington Association of New Jersey, and in 19 10 became one 
of its vice-presidents and in 19 13 its president. He is a vestryman 
of St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Morristown, and also has been 
treasurer of its building committee for the past twenty years. He 
is a member of the Princeton Club, of New York; the Morristown, 
Morris County Golf, Morristown Field, and other clubs. 




c^iuiM Jnj^^^ , 



JAMES JALiv ' ' N 



ramily of Jame-^ l?rV<?- ■■- th 
Liime originally i 
I ■ nrury, hut has 

of this countr' 

ch they settlci! 

)ly, was born ii. 



.'. !ui.;n:ial \ki>~- 

thc position of 

• Company, and 

.,c County Bank, 

R irnett) Jackson, 
March 14, 



returned to Paterson and 



bunk, a< 

!n th;it 1- 



■esident and owned most of its stock until 



%. 



* .: ., ,i f /t7 . 



JAMES JACKSON 



THE family of James Jackson, the subject of tliis narrative, 
came originally from Ireland, in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century, but has become thoroughly incorporated in the 
civic life of this country, gi\ing substantial aid to the State and 
city in which they settled. James Jackson, the American progenitor 
of tlie familv, was born in Sligo, Ireland, came to America, and mar- 
ried Mary Caroline Burnett, of Springfield, New Jersey. He was 
a prominent and influential citizen of Paterson, New Jersey, for many 
years, being thoroughly interested in the industrial and financial pros- 
perity of that city, and assisting much in its growth in the position of 
president of the New Jersey Locomotive & Machine Company, and 
as the controlling power and president of the Passaic County Bank, 
now styled Second National Bank of Paterson. 

James, son of James and Mary Caroline (Burnett) Jackson, 
was born in 1841, at Paterson, New Jersey, and died March 14, 
1903, in the same city. After attending the public schools of his 
native city he spent two years in the State Law School, at Pough- 
keepsie. New York. Finding, however, that his natural bent was 
toward business rather than the law, he returned to Paterson and 
assisted his father in his business affairs until the company, of which 
his father was president, changed hands, .^fter the sale of that 
industry he was employed for several years in various manufactur- 
ing establishments, among them the Passaic Rolling Mill CoiTipany 
and the Idaho Iron Company of Paterson, in the last named holding 
the position of treasurer. Leaving that company, he found employ- 
ment in the Passaic County Bank, an institution which was practically 
owned by his father, and in that place filled the positions of book- 
keeper, teller and cashier. The bank was first organized under 
State laws in 1 852 ; in 1 865 it passed into the hands of Mr. Jackson's 
father, who became its president and owned most of its stock until 



172 BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 

his death. After his death the capital of the bank was increased, and 
by special act of Congress in 1874 the name of the institution was 
changed to the Second National Bank of Paterson, with Benjamin 
Buckley as president, and James Jackson as first cashier. Mr. Buck- 
ley resigned in 1881, and Mr. Jackson succeeded him and held the 
office until his death. Beside his financial interests, Mr. Jackson was 
president of the Gould-Mersereau Company of New York, one of 
the leading upholstery and hardware houses of the country, and was 
prominently identified with manufacturing and other enterprises in 
Paterson. Through his wide and varied experiences in financial and 
commercial affairs, he was eminently fitted for the responsible posi- 
tion he held so long and ably, and it was a fact to be long remem- 
bered and commented on that while Mr. Jackson was at the helm, 
the business public felt itself in perfect safety because of his untar- 
nished integrity and fine, discerning judgment in all financial matters. 
In politics Mr. Jackson was a lifelong Republican. On several 
occasions he was selected by the courts to take charge of estates, and 
his careful and discriminating judgment proved in every instance that 
he was a successful administrator. He was a member of the Hamil- 
ton Club of Paterson, the Lawyers' Club of New York, and in his 
younger days belonged to the H. M. A. Association, an athletic and 
boat club composed of the young men of Paterson. While it was 
well known that Mr. Jackson was of a retiring and domestic tempera- 
ment, few knew what pleasure he had in the home studies which he 
pursued. He was particularly fond of the sciences, devoting much 
attention to mathematics and astronomy. He was well versed in liter- 
ature, being thoroughly acquainted with the works of the best 
authors, but his greatest delight was the Bible, and to its study he 
gave much time, and was generally recognized as a Biblical student 
excelled by few theologians. Mr. Jackson was averse to any display 
of his attainments, but the friends who were able to draw from him 
his knowledge, were astonished and well repaid by the intellectual 
feast he could spread to those who could appreciate his learning. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 173 

On April 25, 1S83, in New York City, Mr. Jackson married 
Amelia, daughter of Edwin Haight and Maria Louise (Hart) Mab- 
bett, of Dutchess county. New York. The only child of Mr. and 
Mrs. James Jackson is (ierald Breck. 






JUDGE GILBERT COLLINS 



GILBERT COLLINS, Justice of the Supreme Court of New 
Jersey from March 8, 1897, until 1903, when he resigned to 
reenter the practice of law, was born in Stonington, New London 
county, Connecticut, August 26, 1846, and is a descendant of an old 
English family which originally came from Kent, England. His 
great-great-grandparents were Daniel Collins and Alice Pell. His 
great-grandfather, Daniel Collins (1732-18 19), of Stonington, 
served in the Revolutionary War, and according to existing records 
was first lieutenant in the First Regiment Connecticut Line, forma- 
tion of 1777; and it is also known that he was in service from 1775. 
He married Anne Potter. His son, Gilbert (1789-1865), grand- 
father of the present Gilbert Collins, served several terms in the 
Connecticut Legislature. His wife was Prudence Frink. Judge 
Collins' father, Daniel Prentice Collins (born in 18 13, died in 
1862), was a manufacturer in Stonington throughout his life; he 
also had business relations in Jersey City, and on this account his son 
eventually made choice of that city as his field of labor, and his 
home. His mother, Sarah R., was a descenilant of the Wells family 
of Ccnineciiciit. 

Judge Collins was prepared for Yale College, but the death of 
his father changed his purpose. The family, which consisted of his 
mother and one sister, removed to Jersey City in 1863, and in 1865 
he entered the office of Jonathan Dixon, now deceased, and former 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. He was admitted to 
the bar as an attorney in February, 1869, and as a counsellor in 
February, 1872. On January i, 1870, he became a partner of Mr. 
Dixon, and continued in that relationship until that gentleman was 
elevated to the bench in April, 1875. He afterward formed a part- 
nership with Charles L. Corbin, one of New Jersey's most distin- 
guished lawyers. In 1881, William H. Corbin was admitted as a 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 175 

member of the firm, which continued under the style of Collins & 
C'orbin till March 8, 1897, when Mr. Collins was appointed a Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, which position he held 
from March 8, 1897, until 1903, when he resigned and reengaged 
in the practice of law with his former partners, under the tirm name 
of Collins & Corbin. Both the Messrs. Corbin have since died. A 
son of one of them is now a member of the firm which still subsists, 
with several junior partners. 

Judge Collins is in politics a Republican; he has been nominated 
by his party for State Senator ( 1880) once, and for Congress twice 
(1882 and 1S88). For two years, from May, 1884, to May, 1886, 
he served as mayor of Jersey City, having been elected by a combina- 
tion of an independent organiation of citizens with the Republicans. 
For five years previous to 1893 he served as chairman of the Repub- 
lican County Committee, when he declined a reelection. He is a 
member of the Union League and Palma clubs, of Jersey City, and 
of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the Revolution. 

June 2, 1870, Judge Collins married Harriet Kingsbury Bush. 
Of their six children, two daughters survive. Their son, Walter 
Collins, was educated at Columbia University, New York, and Wil- 
liams College, Massachusetts. He studied law in his father's office, 
was admitted to the bar in 1896, and was a practicing lawyer in 
Jersey City. He died November 1 1, 1900. 



ISAAC B. EDWARDS 



ISAAC B. EDWARDS, banker, of Red Bank, New Jersey, was 
born in the township of Millstone, Monmouth county, in the 
year 1829. His parents were Samuel and Mary (Thompson) Ed- 
wards, the former a prominent and successful farmer. 

In his youth he profited by such education and advantages as 
the country schools of his neighborhood offered. At the age of six- 
teen he accepted a position in a store at Freehold, conducted by the 
late Richard Davis, deceased, a successful merchant, where he served 
faithfully a number of years to the entire satisfaction of his em- 
ployer. In the late Civil War he filled the office of assistant provost 
marshal for the counties of Monmouth and Ocean. 

In May, 1864, he was tendered the office of cashier of the 
First National Bank of Freehold, and for eleven years occupied that 
office, discharging its responsible duties in a manner that won him 
the favor of the financial institution whose interests he so long and 
faithfully served. While thus engaged he was called to Red Bank 
to assist in the organization of the Second National Bank, a new 
bank which had just received its charter from the United States 
Banking Department at Washington. A board of directors having 
been elected, John S. Applegate was chosen as the first president of 
the board. Samuel T. Hendrickson, a judge of the Monmouth 
Court of Common Pleas; Hon. Andrew Brown, a well-known farmer 
and a member of the New Jersey Assembly; Charles I. Hendrickson, 
a retired merchant of Philadelphia; John J. Hopping, a successful 
farmer of Middletown; John Remsen, a Judge of the Monmouth 
Court of Common Pleas, and a well-known capitalist of Spring Lake, 
Monmouth county, and John Trafford Allen. Esq., a successful mer- 
chant of Red Bank, New Jersey, constituted the members of the 
hoard. The executive ability and financial standing of Isaac B. Ed- 
wards marked him out as eminently fitted for the successful conduct 



^t .^ ^/ /■ 



/\ 



ISAAC n. EDWARDS 



1 



of Red B 
one, Mt 



III 



^•, '■!;;' vi promini- 

• :h he proiitet; 

.'tils of his neii 

.' a position ii 

''i\ IS, deceased, . 

number of years ii 

'Hate Civil War h. 

counties of Mo;-; 

1864, he was 

B^nk of Frcf! 



■"n years o- 

manner that v, on >ii\!) 
-fore he so lone and 



■ Hcndnck.. '. 
lion Andr^ 



the United States 

;if directors having 

first president of 

the Monmouth 

ll-known farmer 



ra ii o r -j ' v 
■if'.', const,, 
mancia! -, 
, fitted fw 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 177 

of the new enterprise. He was unanimously chosen the first cashier 
of the bank, and its principal manager. This position he held for 
three years, when he was appointed president by the board of 
directors. This position he has since continued to fill, and under his 
management the bank has secured an assured financial position and 
the high favor of the community. It is justly a matter of pride to 
Mr. Edwards and his friends that this bank to-day enjoys the envi- 
able reputation of being one of the most successful banking Institu- 
tions in the country. 

Mr. Edwards was married to Charlotte B. Stewart, on the 
lOth day of September, in the year 1857, by the Kcv. Dr. Perkins, 
of Alientown, New Jersey. Two children were born to them. 
Harry Edwards, born October 20, 1858, who was assistant cashier 
of the Second National Bank until his death, which occurred on the 
19th day of December, 1901. His wife survives him. She was 
Annie H., daughter of J. Holmes Hendrickson, of Red Bank, mar- 
ried on the 6th day of October, 1881, by the Rev. Thaddeus Wil- 
son. There were born to them three children: Walter, who died 
young; and Charlotte and Marguerite, who are living. 

Mr. Edwards' daughter, Mary Stewart Edwards, born May 
15, 1864, became the wife of Stricklin A. Kneass, of Philadelphia. 
Three children were born to them, all boys, two of whom are attend- 
int;; college at Troy, New York, and one is at school in Philadelphia. 

Mr. Edwards was one of a family of eleven children, three of 
whom — Elizabeth, Alice and Sarah — never married. Cornelia be- 
came the wife of George H. Koch, of New York; they have one 
son, Frank, who is in business in New York City, and Frank has one 
daughter, who is the wife of Dr. Burr, of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Edwards' sister Amanda married Lemuel Freeman, of 
New York City, who has a son residing in Connecticut. Mary be- 
came the wife of Mr. Miller, living near Hightstown, New Jersey. 
Emma married James H. Sackett, of New York City, and had one 
son, Charles Sackett, now president of the Mutual Bank, of New 
York City. 
NC-12 



178 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Amanda, Emma, and the subject of this sketch, are the only 
surviving children of the parents of Mr. Edwards. His brothers 
were John, Jacob and Samuel, all of whom were farmers; John occu- 
pied the homestead; Jacob resided near Cranbury, and Samuel's 
home was at Manalapan. 



HON. JOHN BEAM VREELAND 



HON. JOHN BEAM VREELAND, of Morristown, a promi- 
nent member of the Morris County Bar, was bom December 
30, 1S52, in the city of Newark, New Jersey, son of George W. and 
Sarah M. (Smith) Vreeland. He comes of an old Holland family, 
which emigrated to America among the early settlers. 

George Washington Vreeland, father of Senator John B. Vree- 
land, was a native of Passaic county, New Jersey, liorn F'ebruary 22, 
1820. He soon learned the duties of farming, but in middle life 
moved to Newark, where he entered into business. In May, 1S68, 
he moved to Morristown, continuing the same line of work. He 
retired from business, and in 19 13, at the age of ninety-three years, 
was still enjoying the friendship of the many acquaintances gained 
during his long and industrious career. He married Sarah M. Smith, 
of Passaic county, whose English ancestors had originally settled in 
Orange county, New York, coming thence to New Jersey. She died 
at the age of thirty-three, in Newark. Their children were: Mary 
E., wife of James O. Halsey; Isaac S. ; and John Beam. George VV. 
Vreeland married (second) Harriet N. Faitoute. 

John Beam Vreeland received his early education in the public 
and high schools of Newark, New Jersey. His parents mo\cd to 
Morristown in 1868, and he has resided there up to the present day. 
For the next four years he became associated with his father in busi- 
ness, but his early fondness for study reasserted itself, and John B. 
Vreeland, at the age of nineteen, decided thereafter to follow the 
legal profession. He entered the offices of Frederick G. Burnham 
and Colonel V. A. DeMott, to prepare for the bar, to which he was 
admitted as attorney and solicitor in chancery, November, i S75. He 
became a counsellor in June, 1879. He has been an active and suc- 
cessful practitioner since that time. From 1876 to 1879 he was a 
partner of Edward A. Quaylc. From November, 1871;, to June, 



180 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOr'EDIA 



1876, he was deputy county clerk for his county, resigning on the 
formation of the partnership with Mr. Quayle. Since 1879, Mr. 
V^reeland pursued his calling alone, until on April i, 1903, he formed 
a co-partnership with several other gentlemen, forming the firm 
known as Vreeland, King, Wilson & Lindabury. His ability as a 
lawyer has been tested in the extreme, and has won for him the 
record of a lawyer of surpassing talent. The honesty of his char- 
acter, and the fidelity to his clients' interests have won him a deserved 
success. 

Mr. Vreeland received in 1892 from Chancellor McGill an 
appointment as special master in chancery. He has also filled the 
offices of acting prosecutor of the pleas of the county of Morris, and 
town counsel of Morristown. He has always been active in support- 
ing Republican principles, and served as township clerk of Morris 
township before its separation from Morristown, his term lasting 
three years. The Republican ticket in 1895 offered his name for the 
office of State Senator from Morris county, to which he was elected 
by a plurality of fifteen hundred and twenty-six votes. While a 
member of that body, he introduced the bill known as "the school 
teachers' retirement fund bill," passed in 1896. He was also a mem- 
ber of several important committees, especially on that for the revi- 
sion of laws, and was chairman of the joint committee on State hos- 
pitals for the insane. 

Acting Governor Foster M. Voorhees appointed him as judge 
of the several courts of Morris county, for a term of five years, begin- 
ning ;\prll 1, 1898. This office having been filled with great fidelity 
to the trusts which it imposed upon him, on October 20, 1903, he 
received the appointment as United States Attorney for the District 
of New Jersey, ad interim. On December 16, 1903, he received the 
full appointment to the same position, for four years, and was reap- 
pointed for another term of like length, on December 9, 1907, and 
held the office until June, 19 13. These various appointments were 
made bv President Theodore Roosevelt. 

.Mr. Vreeland has been for a long time a liberal supporter of 



I'.IOGRAPllICAL KXCVCLOPEDIA 181 



the South Street Presbyterian Church of Morristown. In many 
other ways he has also shown his interest in the moral, political and 
educational progress of the community in which he lives. 

John Beam Vreeland married (first) December i8, 1878, Ida 
A. Piotrowski, who died in 1896. He married (second) June 2, 
1897, Ida King Smith. His children, by his first wife, are: Eda A. 
and Vera E. 




BENJAMIN EASTWOOD 



tC A TRULY GREAT LIFE," says Webster, "when Heaven 
x\. vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burn- 
ing bright for a while and then expiring, giving place to returning 
darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat as well as radiant light, 
with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that, 
when it glimmers in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no 
night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the 
potent contact of its own spirit." 

Benjamin Eastwood, who was for many years engaged in the 
manufacture of silk machinery in Paterson, New Jersey, was sum- 
moned to the life eternal on the 24th of April, 1899. He was a 
native of Burnley, Lancashire, England, where his birth occurred 
October 31, 1839. He left school at an early age, and his advanced 
educational training was obtained through mutual improvement 
classes and by instruction from private tutors. In 1863, at the age 
of twenty-four years, he immigrated to America. From 1865 to 
1870 he was engaged in mining operations in Venezuela, South 
America, and at Charlotte, North Carolina. About one year was 
spent in an experimental machine shop, where a specialty was made 
of small intricate machinery. In 1872 he engaged in the machine 
business on his own account in lower Van Houten street, in Paterson. 
Subsequently he removed to larger quarters in the old "Beaver Mill," 
at the foot of Broadway, remaining there from 1874 to 1878. In 
the hitter year he purchased a site on Ramapo avenue, near the Erie 
station, and there erected a new shop, the lateral dimensions of which 
were forty feet by one hundred; this shop was two stories high. In 
1879 a brick foundry was added to the plant, and from that time on 
the history of the business was one of rapid growth and progress. 
More real estate was acquired from time to time and other buildings 



citJ^^^^^^rz^^ 



BENJAMIN EAHI - 






r R [ I Y r. I.: ! , AT LIFE," sav^ aven 

.'re a gift, 
.: then exp 
ir. rkoffen 

, common 
tip, decay, and t: 
-•* the world all - ,•. . 
■pirit." 

«ho was for many yc:'^ 
■^ury in Paterson, New J 

he 24th of April, 1899- i^^ ■*•■■- ° 

England, where his birth occurred 

ool at an early age, and his advanced 

lined through mutual improvement 

■■[) private tutors. In ' age 

I migrated to America. ..5 to 

• aJTung operations in Venezuela, South 

^^orth Carolina. About one year was 

>4.ne shop, where a specialty was made 

;;; 1872 he engaged in the machine 

■:. er Van Houten street, in Paterson. 

, carters In ti; iver Mill," 

• there froi - 1878. I" 

Ramapo avenue, near thir ( ■ :> 
;l:e lateral dimensions of v- !■ 
was two stories • 
, int, and from t'^ 
" pid growth an 
i .*■■ '\n\t and otJ 



ing brigh' 
darkriess. it . 
with power rf 
when it glim:=}c;5 - 
night foil'.iw>. :l» * 
potent conru' ' 

manutac''.ti . ^ . - 

moned tu 

native ot !'■ 

October 3. ■ ■ r. 

educationii r^i 

classes and b> .:." 

of twenty-fofjr -!■ 

1870 he was ■ ^ J 

America, arid .-i . 

spent in an e\j'-= .• , 

(if small intrit: ■ ;; 

ho-iincss on his • a t 

"^wl^-cqufntiy he re: 
r-' »''>,7t of Broa>! ■ 
3ar he pir 
! there ercc 
ttet by one h.r 
' 'i'lmdry was ; . 

fie business Wdf- i . 
•. , ■ .'i was acquired frui 




<?^ 



c/ye.^^ " ca^Vz/'Ty^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 183 

were added as needed, the plant at present occupying over thirty city 
lots. 

At first Mr. Eastwood was occupied with the manufacture of 
special machinery and with repair work. He early became interested 
in the special machinery required in manufacturing silk, and with the 
passage of time the greater part of the entire plant came to be de- 
voted to the making of silk machinery of various kinds. He was 
the pioneer in the field of making silk power warping machines in the 
United States. The line was gradually enlarged until it included all 
preparatory machinery for handling soft silk up to and including silk 
looms complete with all up-to-date attachments. Mr. Eastwood's 
attention to the details of the business, his natural ability to grasp 
matters of a business or financial nature, together with his upright 
character and genial disposition, were the foundation of the great 
success achieved by him in the industrial world. Under the well 
arranged system which he adopted and which has been continued by 
his two sons, the business has continued to advance since his demise, 
and at present is one of Paterson's most important industries. 

His religious faith was in harmony with the teachings of the 
Congregational church. Mr. Eastwood was a great lover of music, 
and in the days of the Paterson Musical Union was an active mem- 
ber of that organization, serving for a time as its president. He was 
much interested in the work of the Paterson General Hospital, serv- 
ing on its executive board at the time of his death. A few years be- 
fore his death he was instrumental in securing subscriptions to a fund 
of $10,000, which enabled the General Hospital to pay off all its 
indebtedness for the time being. Mr. Eastwood personally made a 
generous subscription to this fund. He was also much interested in 
the activities of the "Old" Board of Trade of Paterson; he rarely 
missed a meeting of the board, and for a period was its president. 

In his political convictions he was aligned as an uncompromising 
supporter of the principles promulgated by the Republican party. 
He never held any public office, but was loyal and public-spirited in 
his civic attitude, and gave generously of his means to all matters 



184 lUUGRAPHICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 

promoting progress and prosperity. In a fraternal way he was 
affiliated with Passaic Lodge, No. 33, Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, in which he had passed through all the official chairs, and 
he was likewise connected with Lodge, No. 60, Benevolent and Pro- 
tective Order of Elks. He was a valued and appreciative member 
of the Hamilton Club and of the Silk Association of America, and 
was also a director in the Silk City Safe Deposit & Trust Company. 
At Paterson, New Jersey, September 21, 1865, Mr. Eastwood 
was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Baxter, a daughter of Francis 
and Mary Baxter. Six children resulted from this union, three of 
whom are living at the date of this writing. These, in the order of 
their birth, are: James, Benjamin and Bessie Marian. 




C HARLES C. BLACK 



JL DGE CHARLES C. BLACK, a lawyer and jurist of excellent 
attainments, and author ot \ arious valuable professional works, 
was born July 29, 1S58, near Mount Holly, Burlington county, son 
of John and Mary Anna (Clarke) Black. 

He was prepared for college at the Mount Llolly Academy, 
entered Princeton University in 1874, and was graduated with the 
class of 1S78 in his twentieth year. He read law in Mount Llolly 
under Colonel James N. Stratton, and then entered the Law Depart- 
ment of the L niversity of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He 
was admitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in June, 1881, 
and as a counsellor in June, 1884. After his admission to the bar 
he located at Jersey City, as senior member of the firm of Black & 
Dayton, and was busily engaged with a large- practice until his ap- 
pointment to the bench. 

Judge Black has also had a notable career in public life. For 
five years he served as a member of the Hudson County Board of 
Registration, under the ballot reform law, and was highly instru- 
mental in carrying into effect the provisions of that salutary measure. 
On March 21, 1891, he was appointed a member of the State Board 
of Taxation for a term of five years, and was twice reappointed, his 
service on the board covering the long period of seventeen years. In 
I 896 he was appointed, by Governor Griggs, a member of the Equal 
Tax Commission, and again in 1902 by Governor Murphy. On 
March 30. 1901;, Governor Stokes nominated him as a member of 
the new Board of Equalization of Taxes, and he was at once con- 
firmed by the Senate. He was yet serving in that capacity when, on 
January 22, 1908, Governor Fort appointed him a circuit judge to 
succeed Judge Minturn, who had been appointed to the bench of the 
Supreme Court. His circuit comprises the counties of Bergen. Mor- 
ris, Passaic, Sussex and Warren, and his term will expire in 191 5. 



186 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Judge Black, has made several valuable additions to professional 
literature in his "Proof and Pleadings in Accident Cases," "New 
Jersey Law of Taxation," and "Law and Practice in Accident Cases." 
He is a Democrat in politics, and in 1904 was the candidate of his 
party for Governor. He is a member of the Princeton and Univer- 
sity clubs of Hudson count}', and other clubs and societies. He re- 
sides in Jersey City. 




-■1 r. 



V.C/' 



/fe-^^?^,i/. 



'opert)', and spent 
he worthless tei' - 
... underi Mk .hi itm 
trees arit 



crystal 



I) IllMill V .11 t nil >s 

nity are they who a 



spot. 



D. WILLIS JAMES 



D WILLIS JAMES is one of those citizens to whom the de- 
• velopnient of New Jersey municipalities in the direction of 
beauty and hygiene is mostly due. Too little is known of his career 
in the business and professional world, for his name has become one 
to conjure with in the town of Madison, New Jersey, to which, on 
July 4, I 89 8, he presented the public park, which has since been the 
chief adornment of its landscape. In 1897 one portion of Madison 
consisted of a bare tract, held by several owners, who had no reason 
to impro\-e the unsightly place, which was covered with dilapidated 
buildings, standing over unhealthly morasses. 

rvlr. James, out of his own wealth, and dealing through a repre- 
sentative, succeeded in buying all this piece of property, and spent 
much money in having it drained and in remo\ing the worthless tene- 
ments. A landscape gardner at his request then undertook the im- 
provement of greensward and woodlands, and trees and flowers were 
placed at proper intervals along the graveled walks and drives. This 
cultivation of the natural beauties attracted both birdlife and the 
weary people of Madison. A bridge and pavilion added to the 
beauty of the artificial lake, and a fountain threw its sparkling crystal 
to refresh the onlookers. Mr. James' expressed wish was that the 
park might be "a source of amusement, recreation and health to the 
people of Madison," and it has reached complete realization. 

It has been said that "as long as Madison has an existence will 
her population hold in grateful remembrance this gentleman, whose 
deep interest in humanity and the advancement of the race prompted 
him to give to his fellow townsmen this artistic and lovely spot." 
Mayor Albright, of Madison, on the occasion of the park's presenta- 
tion to the city, said : "The great men of the people are the soldiers 
and orators, and the great men of history are those who control 
events, but the great men of humanity are they who advance culture 



188 IHOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



and science. Of the last we have assembled to meet and greet one 
to-day, — D. Willis James. His object is humanitarian; his work is 
philanthropic; his modesty and generosity unparalleled." The re- 
joicing of the whole community over Mr. James' gift was celebrated 
with a procession of more than one thousand people, and included 
its civic societies, public and parochial school children, drum corps 
and bands of music, which marched past Mr. James at his residence, 
and were reviewed by him, then acting as his escort to the place 
where the mayor and his officials were gathered for the public exer- 
cises. 

Mr. James was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Daniel 
and Elizabeth (Phelps) James. He married Ellen Curtis. 



WILLIAM G. BUMSTED 



THOUGH ranking as one of the best known and most active 
lawyers in the State of New Jersey, Wilham deorge Bunisted 
is primarily a man of affairs. He might be more fitly, perhaps, 
denominated a business man who has also an expert knowledge 
of the law. He has engaged in large real estate operations, and 
his connection with any organization is ne\er a merely nominal 
one. He has made it a rule that his nanic should ne\er be used 
as director or trustee of any organization to whose affairs he could 
not give enough attention to thoroughly understand them, and 
he has carried out this rule even in the charitable and philanthropic 
associations, such as Christ's Hospital, in which he has been inter- 
ested. This thoroughness and conscientiousness is characteristic of 
the man, and marks his smaller, as well as his larger, dealings. 

He was born December 23, 1855, in Jersey City, New Jersey, 
son of William H. and Mary (Arbuckle) Bumsted. His ancestors 
had been for generations people of importance in that part of the 
State. His grandparents on his father's side, William and Mary 
Bumsted, were born in England, and had come here and settled in 
Hudson county in 1833. William H. Bimisted died in September, 
1874, and was sur\'ived by his widow. 

William George Bumsted received his early education in Public 
School No. 14, and Hasbrouck Institute, which was then situated in 
lower Grand street, Jersey City. He went thence to Phillips Acad- 
emy, Andover, Massachusetts, and was graduated from that institu- 
tion in 1875. His intention had been to go to Yale University, but, 
though he matriculated there, his father's death about this time re- 
quired his presence at home to look after his mother's affairs, and 
he was never able to resume his interrupted collegiate course. 

Returning home from college, he entered upon the study of law 
in the office of William Brinkerhoff, then in the First National Bank 



190 JJIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Building, Jersey City. Here he was thrown into association with 
William H. Corbin, William D. Edwards, John S. Mabon and Fred- 
ericic S. Frambach, forming the close personal ties that were never 
subsequently broken. Mr. Bumsted was admitted to the bar of New 
Jersey in 1879, and immediately entered upon the practice of his 
profession in his native city. He soon built up an extensive office and 
real estate clientage, and gained an excellent reputation as a lawyer. 
Shortly after this entrance upon his profession he became a member 
of the firm of Wallis, Edwards & Bumsted, in 1888. The office was 
in the First National Bank Building, and has there remained ever 
since. This partnership was dissolved in IQ02 by the retirement of 
Hamilton Wallis, and by the desire of William D. Edwards to de- 
vote himself to litigated practice. His ever-increasing personal affairs 
pressed heavily upon Mr. Bumsted's attention, so that he decided 
against forming any new association, and determined to practice by 
himself. His inclinations had always led him away from the forensic 
side of practice. Therefore he chose now to devote himself more and 
more to the work of advising business men and corporations upon the 
legal questions arising in the conduct of their affairs and finances. 

This change left him free to engage in many important trans- 
actions in which he had taken a keen interest. He has always had 
faith in the future of his native city, so that he became a large oper- 
ator in real estate there and in Long Island. From 1880 to 1895 
he was engaged in promoting building enterprises in various parts of 
Hudson county, through a number of builders. The heavy demands 
upon his time in later years have, however, prevented his continuing 
to do much of that type of work. Another article of his belief in his 
native region is in the ultimately large value of the Hackensack river 
front, so that he has become one of the largest private owners, in the 
county, of land on that stream. Mr. Bumsted is one of the charter 
members of the New Jersey Title Guarantee & Trust Company. He 
was one of its original directors, and with his expert knowledge of 
realty values was of incalculable service to the company, when he 
acted for a number of years as the chairman of its finance committee. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 191 

He is a director also in the Colonial Life Insurance Company, the 
Provident Institution for Savings, the Joseph Dixon Crucible Com- 
pany, and the Pavonia Trust Company. He has been since 1886 
director and part owner of the Raritan Railroad Company, which 
runs from South Amboy to New Brunswick, through the rich clay 
districts of Middlesex county. Since the death of his old friend and 
business associate, PVank H. Earle, he has filled the presidency of 
the railroad company, and discharged the duties of the office with 
that thoroughness which has become synonymous with his name. 

As a young man Mr. Bumsted was an athlete, and devoted to 
many forms of sport, and he is now, in middle life, a man of robust 
and vigorous health. In his youth he served a term of enlistment in 
the Seventh Regiment, New York National Guard. In political 
preference he is a Republican, but it has never been one of his ambi- 
tions to hold office. He is regarded in Jersey City as one of its 
most valuable and public-spirited citizens. 

He married. In 1885, Minnie G., a daughter of Diedrich and 
lulia Gale, of New York City. They have had no children. 



WILLIAM I. BARRY 



IN May, 1895, was summoned to the life eternal the soul of a 
man whose sterling integrity and most exemplary Christian 
character have left an indelible impress upon the hearts of his fellow 
men. At the time when he was called from the scene of his mortal 
endeavors he was in his forty-fifth year and for a quarter of a century 
he had been a resident of Passaic, New Jersey. The prestige which 
he gained as a fair and honorable man was the result of his own well 
directed endeavors and his success was on a parity with his ability 
and well applied energy. 

The Barry family was founded in Massachusetts in the colonial 
era of our national history, but the name of the emigrant ancestor 
and whence he came to America is not known. William Barry, 
grandfather of the subject of this re\ iew, was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, September 22, 1776, died August 11, 1855. He married, 
September 6, 1802, Esther Stetson, born July 23, 1784, and a daugh- 
ter of John Stetson, of Randolph, Massachusetts. William Barry 
was a son of John and Mary (Blake) Barry, whose marriage was 
solemnized April 14, 1757. John Barry was born in Boston, in 1734, 
and died December 5, 1784; and Mary (Blake) Barr^' was born 
April 3, 1732, and died May 29, 1801. John was a son of Charles 
and Mary Barry, the former of whom was born in Boston, in 17 10, 
and the latter of whom was born in i 7 13 ; she died October 4, i 764. 

Henry Barry, son of William and Esther (Stetson) Barry, and 
father of William Isaac Barry, of this notice, was born in Boston, 
where for many years he was a member of the firm of Pollard & 
Barry, hatters, and where he was later connected with the Prang 
Lithographing Company. He married Edith Adams. The Barry 
family is of Puritan descent and many representatives of the name 
have been clergymen of wide renown. A brother of Henr\' Barry 
was graduated from Harvard and Andover and settled in Chicago, 



WIL^ 



IN May, 1S95, was summoned to the life eternal th;- >.«;! of a 
man whose sterling Integrity and most exempla'v '■■'■■■MiAn 
^1 ir.'cter have left an indelible impress upon the hearts oi 
i ' i;. At the timfr when he was called fror^ the «r«?e of 
. . t:a\(,is he w ty-fifth year a'- 

! aJ been a i^assaic, New J: 

/Timed as a hr.r ard Honorable man was tfn. -. wcl.' 

' Lii!j!vors and his success was on a ! '^ilitv 

' energy. 

. family was founded in Massachusetts \n ' 
'.H<v:<ni\ history, but the name of the emigra 
■/ .anic to America is not known. William od-., 
•'■(. s ;l)iect of rhis review, was born in Boston, Massa- 
~~/.. icd August II, 1855. He married, 
-'.'r«>ii. born July 23, 1784, and a daugh- 
nh, Massachusetts. William Barry 
Biui<e) Barry, whose marriage was 
. John Barry was born in Boston, in 1734, 
- i and Mary (Blake) Barry was bom 
Q, I Sot. John was a son of Charles 
! ' whom was born in Boston, in 17 10, 

- > lin 1713; she died October 4, 1764. 

■m and Esther (Stetson) Barry, and 
v^rh if this notice, was born in Boston. 

• ' •• mber of the firm of PoIIa' ' >'' 

B- ' '.lur connected with th«- i 

i. ■'*!■ ;.-,>■■■ lAlith Adams. 

fai:.i' ' presentatives 

'oh\- ; . I . '. brother of \' 

\y?'- L" ' I ■■■■■. ' er and settled ! 



HlOGRAI'llJCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 193 

where he became the founder of the "Chicago Historical Society." 
Another brother, John Stetson Barry, wrote a valuable history of the 
State of Massachusetts. 

William Isaac Barry, son of Henry and Edith (Adams) Barry, 
was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 12, 1850. His edu- 
cational training was obtained in the Boston and Cambridge public 
schools. In 1869 his brother, Henry A. Barry, in company with his 
intimate friend, Peter Reid, came to Passaic and opened up a busi- 
ness of bleaching and dyeing. This enterprise progressed so rapidly 
that the plant was soon increased in size and with the passage of time 
it became one of the important business industries of this section of 
the State. William I. Barry came to Passaic in 1870 and became 
connected, as an employee, with the firm of Reid & Barry. In 1888, 
after serving the firm for eighteen years, he became a partner with 
Peter Reid in place of his brother, Henry A. Barry, who then retired 
and who died a few months later. William I. Barry's familiarity 
with the business of the firm made him well able to cope with the new 
responsibilities imposed on him. Too much work, however, im- 
paired his health and he made an extended tour of the United States 
and Europe in order to recuperate. His natural business talent and 
sagacity enabled him to accomplish much in the way of building up 
the firm's interests and he rapidly gained distinctive prestige as a 
wealthy and prominent citizen. In addition to his connection with 
the firm of Reid & Barry he was a heavy stockholder in the Passaic 
National Bank. 

He was a Republican in politics and while he was too busy for 
active participation in public affairs he was deeply and sincerely inter- 
ested in all that affected the good of his home community' and was a 
generous contributor to all matters and enterprises tending to for- 
ward progress and improvement. Religiously, he was a zealous 
member of the Presbyterian church, being president of the board of 
trustees at the time the First Presbyterian Church of Passaic was 
built. He was also actively interested in and contributed to the sup- 

NC— 13 



194 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

port of the local Young Men's Christian Association, of which he 
was a member of the board of directors. He was genial in his asso- 
ciations, affable in his address, generous in his judgment of his fellow 
men, and courteous to all. As a citizen and enthusiast of his town, 
it is but just to say that communities will prosper and grow in pro- 
portion as they put a premium on men of his mould. He died in 
May, 1895, right in the prime of life, and had he lived longer his 
career of usefulness would have broadened out even more in its scope 
and importance. He was a member of the Passaic and Kenilworth 
clubs. 

October 26, 1881, at Passaic, New Jersey, occurred the mar- 
riage of Mr. Barry to Miss Lizzie A. Bartlett, a daughter of Lewis 
Watson and Pamelia (Walker) Bartlett. Children: Marion Bart- 
lett, born December 2, 1882; and Henry Adams, born October 3, 
i8qo. 



ALPHEUS S. ALLEN 



ALPHEUS SYLVESTER ALLEN, a well-known ex-alderman 
of Paterson, New Jersey, and one of the foremost citizens of 
that progressive city, was the son of Stephen and Catherine (Courter) 
Allen, born May 27, 1833, in Paterson. His surname is one recorded 
numerously in both England and America, and occurs as early as the 
fifteenth century, when Thomas Alien was sheriff of London. There 
are twenty-fi\e coats-of-arms belonging to different English families 
of this name. Walter Alien, earliest known of A. S. Allen's line, 
was born in England in 1601, and died in Charlestown, Massachu- 
setts, July 8, 1 68 I. He came as early as 1640 to Newbury, Massa- 
chusetts, and removed thence to Watertown and Charlestown, buy- 
ing property in both places, and disposing of his estate at Newbury. 
In old records he is mentioned as farmer, planter and "haberdasher 
of hats." He married twice, and his first wife, Rebecca, who died 
November 29, 1678, was the mother of his son, Joseph, born in 
England, who died in Weston, Massachusetts, September 9, 1721. 
He was a cooper by trade, but also owned property. By his wife, 
Anne Brazier, he had, among other children, a son, Joseph (2), 
born June 16, 1677, ^"^ died November i, 1729, both in Weston. 
He is called "Ensign" on his tombstone in the old burial ground at 
Weston Center. By his first wife, Elizabeth (Robbins) Allen, one 
of his children was Joseph (3), born at Watertown Farms, April 
2, 1709. He held many positions of trust and honor, and though 
his trade was that of housewright, he became as early as i 740 a cap- 
tain of militia, and later was selectman, assessor, clerk and treasurer 
of the town. He was a deacon in the church for nearly fifty-seven 
years, before his death, August 18, 1793. His house at Hardwick, 
Massachusetts, being destroyed by fire, he built the one which is still 
standing in 19 13. 

David Allen, born .-Xugust 18, 1738, was the son of Joseph (3) 



196 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



Allen, who had the reputation of being one of the most energetic as 
well as one of the earliest pioneers of Hardwick. David Allen was 
also a prominent citizen, and filled the offices of selectman and 
assessor. He died August 5, 1799, and left several children. Daniel 
Allen, a son of David Allen by his first wife, Elizabeth F^isk, was 
born in Hardwick, September 20, 1767. He was a millwright, and 
carried his business into New Jersey, upon his removal to Newark, 
where he settled and became widely known as a mill builder. While 
at Mexico, New York, engaged in constructing a water wheel, he 
fell into the wheelpit, and was injured so seriously that, when he re- 
turned home, gangrene followed his injury, and he soon died. 
Among the five children left with his widow, Jane (Personette) 
Allen, was Stephen, born about 1800, at Newark, New Jersey. 
Stephen Allen moved to Paterson, New Jersey, when a very young 
man, and opened a tobacco establishment, to which in later years he 
admitted his son, Alpheus S. Allen, as a partner. He was made cap- 
tain of the General Godwin Guard, a Paterson organization. At one 
time he served as a member of the board of chosen freeholders of 
Passaic county. His wife was Catherine, daughter of John Courier, 
of Paterson, and their only living children are: Alpheus S., the sub- 
ject of this sketch, and Louise, who married Charles H. May, also 
of Paterson. 

Alpheus Sylvester Allen is a man of great knowledge of the 
world and long business experience. He has continued residing in 
Paterson all his life, and has had part in its many municipal interests. 
His early education was received in private schools of his birthplace, 
at Poughkeepsie, New York, and at Bloomfield, New Jersey. The 
trip to California was made in those days by way of Cape Horn, 
through the Straits of Magellan, and in 1851 he went by this route 
to spend two years on the then little-known Pacific coast, spending 
most of his time in Oregon, and visiting Panama. He had returned 
by i8i;4, and was then admitted by his father to partnership in the 
tobacco company, with whose details he had become familiar in boy- 
hood. His father died in 1885, but the firm of Stephen Allen & 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 197 

Company was changed to the style of Allen, Reynolds & Company 
many years before, by the admission of John Reynolds and John 
Allen, and in 1S72 the business was sold out entirely. Alpheus S. 
Allen was soon after able to retire from active business, upon the 
property which his many industrious ancestors had acquired, and 
which his own callable intellect had multiplied. 

7 he field of politics had also attracted Alpheus S. Allen, and 
in 1870 he became an alderman in Paterson. In May, 1872. he was 
appointed receiver of taxes for his home city, and contuiued to serve 
in that capacity for eighteen years. In financial matters Mr. .Allen 
has also taken prominent part, being director for over twenty-five 
years in the Paterson Savings Institution, and for a similar period in 
the First National Bank of Paterson. He is deeply interested in the 
fraternity of the Knights of Pythias, being a member of Fabriola 
LoJ.ge, No. 57, and for many years occupied prominent positions in 
the .Ancient Free and .Accepted Masons, being a member of Joppa 
Chapter, .No. 29, and Melita Commandery, No. 13; also a member 
of the Old City Blues and Paterson Light Guard. 

His marriage to Maria, daughter of Edward and Ann (Stagg) 
Osborn, of Paterson, took place on May 1 1, 1858, and was solemn- 
ized by Rev. William II. Hornblower. Mrs. Allen was a native of 
Paterson, and born .April 12, 1S37. Their children are: i. Annie 
Vcrnet, born .April 21, 1859; married, December 15, 1881, Willard 
P. Whitlock. Children: Harold Allen, born August 15, 1882; 
Louis Ivey, March 21, 1884; Willard P., March 16, 1886; Herbert, 
July, 1897. 2. Stephen Lincoln, born March 25, 1865, died January 
10, 1 87 1. 3. Jessie Elizabeth, a twin, November 15, 1867. 4. 
Jennie Rebecca, a twin, November 15, 1867; married, November 
2^, 1890, Jerome C. Read, and has two children: .Allen Jerome, 
bom July 30, 1S93; and Jane C, July, 1903. 



WALLACE M. SCUDJ)ER 



WALLACE McILVAINE SCUDDER, son of Justice Ed- 
ward Wallace Scudder, of the Supreme Court of New Jer- 
sey, and Mary Louise Drake, his wife, was born December 26, i853i 
in Trenton, New Jersey. 

He was surrounded from infancy with culture and refinement. 
His father held the high respect of the people among whom he lived, 
not only for his loyal legal attainments and statesmanlike qualities, 
but also for his high character and personal worth. His mother pos- 
sessed much dignity and presided over a home which dispensed a 
gracious hospitality. The education of the family was a matter of 
careful consideration, and he went to the State Model School, pre- 
paratory to entering Lehigh University, from which he graduated in 
1873 ^^''^h the degree of mechanical engineer, afterwards com- 
mencing the study of law with Garrett D. W. Vroom. He attended 
Harvard Law School, after which he entered the office of John R. 
Emery. He was admitted to the bar in 1877, practiced in Newark 
until 1883, at which date he started in Newark the "Evening News," 
as editor and publisher, which paper rapidly attained large circula- 
tion and usefulness. He served a term on the Newark Board of Edu- 
cation, but since beginning his newspaper work has had no political 
connection and refused all political positions or preferment. 

The Essex Club, Automobile Club, Essex County Country Club, 
Morris County Golf Club, and the New Jersey Historical Society 
claim him as a member. Of the latter useful and flourishing organ- 
ization he is vice-president. His family attend St. James Episcopal 
Church of Newark, of which he is a vestryman. 

Mr. Scudder and Ida, daughter of James M. and Phebe 
(Swazy) Quinby, were married October 21, 1880, in Newark. 
Their children are: Edward Wallace Scudder, married Katherine 
C. Hollifield; and Antoinette Quinby Scudder. He married (sec- 
ond) April 17, 1906, in New York, Gertrude Witherspoon. Child, 
Wallace McIIvaine Scudder, 2nd. 



/ 



cXjLm- 



(Sv 

Th 
C. 

oriii 
Wa 



WALLACE M. 

ii, I\icIi>VAirsE >'. ..sCkc Lil- 

Wallace Scudder, of New Jer- 

fvouise Drake, his wife, .V . 
■.V Jersey. 

iTOunded from Infancy ■' 
U-1C high respect of the pe 

J legal attainments and statesr; 

character and personal worth. 1, „ 

and picsided over a home which dispe; 
iu . ration of the family was a mat 
cnt to the State Model Schc; 
^ity, from which he g- 
cal engineer, after^= 
: ct D. W. Vroom. I 
ic entered the ofSce 
: r in 1877, practiced in Newark 
■a Newark the "Evenipi; '^-'ews,"'' 
p.'p-r rapidly attained lu 
. ' 1 • . r.-. nn the Newark B 
■ work ha 

ions or pri. Jvi ^n^n.. 
i!ssex County Country 



.1 St. Jam. 



M. and 




'^U^la^Aj!- ^^^ Oc^^i-. 



EDWAKD THEODORE BELL 



EDWARD THEODORE BELL, banker, of Paterson, New 
Jersey, is a representative citizen, and one who has most truly 
exemplified the term of public spirited. He was born at Stanhope, 
New Jersey, March 26, 1843, son of Edward Sullivan and Cath- 
erine Louisa (Beach) Bell. 

After a preparatory education in the public schools and a finish- 
ing course at the Collegiate Institute at Newton, New Jersey, he 
began business life in i860 as a messenger for the Hackettstown 
Bank. In these days of specialization it is not only necessary for a 
man to choose his vocation with a careful regard to his aptitude, but 
also to concentrate to some extent within that line in order to be a 
pronounced success, and Mr. Bell chose wisely in making the realm 
of finance his vocation and banking his specialty. In i 864 he became 
teller of the Bank of Jersey City, and later in the same year was 
elected cashier of the Eirst National Bank of Paterson, New Jersey. 
The latter office he held until 1S75, when he retired, still retaining 
his connection, however, with the corporation through his position 
on the board of directors. In 1882 he was elected vice-president 
and returned to active service in the bank in 1883, and in 1894 he 
was elected to the highest office, that of president, succeeding Hon. 
John J. Brown, and this office he is still ably filling at the present 
time ( 1913). 

The First National Bank is not the only institution that has 
been benefited by the wisdom of Mr. Bell's counsel, antl his capable 
management. The preparation of the charter and organization of 
the Paterson Savings Institution, in 1869, was largely due to his 
efforts, and he is now ( 1913) vice-president of this institution; also 
president of the Paterson & Passaic Gas & Electric Company, and 
director of the Paterson & Ramapo Railroad Company, besides being 
executor and trustee of several estates. He was a member of the 



200 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

New Jersey Commission to the Paris Exposition in 1878, and while 
there had charge of the arrangements in the American section for the 
banquet tendered General Grant. He was one of the original Park 
Commissioners of Paterson, and much credit is due him as a member 
of this commission, as well as the originator of the idea of the erec- 
tion of a City Hall as a Centennial Memorial; he was chairman of 
the commission for the erection of a city hall until 1898, when he 
resigned. 

In politics Mr. Bell is a Republican, and his religious affiliations 
are with the Church of the Redeemer (Presbyterian) of Paterson, 
in which he is president of the board of trustees. He is a member of 
the New Jersey Historical Society; the Washington Headquarters 
Association, Morristown, New Jersey; contributing member of the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; president of the Eye 
and Ear Infirmary, Paterson, New Jersey; honorary member of the 
board of managers of the Paterson General Hospital Association, 
Paterson, New Jersey; member of the advisory board of various 
charitable institutions; member of the Board of Trade of Paterson. 
His clubs are the Union League of New York City, the Hamilton of 
Paterson, and the Areola Country Club of Paterson, New Jersey. 

Mr. Bell married, at Newton, New Jersey, June 9, 1870, Anna 
D., daughter of Judge Daniel Stuart Anderson. Their children are : 
Mae Anderson, now Mrs, Edward Van Ingen; Edward T., de- 
ceased; Thornton Beach. Mrs. Bell died November 23, 1908. 




/ 




/^V'O^I^^^^- 



JT TJUS BR ANDES 



1^ ^ears ]■ ,.J with the 

. rias just reason 
to n.ued many a 

sub . itly to the 

grov ,. . , :, . , cry sense of 

the isiness man of marked 

" .rter and commendable 

Brandes himself that 

.\<'iid until he now occupies a 

; representative men of Paterson, 

obon mill that has in its employ 

1 in Hanover, Germany, in the year 

^ 'nitive land, and as a youth began to 

>hment in Hanover, later receiv- 

_ .;. a chemical works at Bremen, Ger- 

il to America, and located for a time in 

J employment in various textile centers 

s employed in various silk mills in dif- 

hen he was given the position of man- 

' of William Wicke & Company, which 

few looms to make cigar ribbons. A 

■ 1 to partnership in the above firm, and 

;le branch of its business. 

■n, which then amounted .: 

r day, was increased to two hundred thou- 

. L embraced narrow ribbons and silk bindings 

I ..- i. lirandes severed his connection with the William 

Wick', t >n^v inv. ami erected on his own property what is acknowl- 



'^€^. 



JULIUS BRANDES 



FOR many years Julius Brainles has been connected with tlie 
upbuilding of Paterson, New Jersey, and he has just reason 
to be proud of the fact that to his efforts can be traced many a 
substantial enterprise or advancement contributing greatly to the 
growth and prosperity of this section of the State. In every sense of 
the word he is a representative citizen and a business man of marked 
capacit)'. It is tn the inherent force of character and commendable 
ambition and the imremitting diligence of Mr. Brandes himself that 
he steadily advanced in the business world until he now occupies a 
leading place among the active and representative men of Paterson, 
where he is chief owner of a silk ribbon mill that has in its employ 
seven hundred men and women. 

Julius Brandes was born in Hanover, Germany, in the year 
1 85 I. He was educated in his native land, and as a youth began to 
work in his father's dyeing establishment in Hanover, later receiv- 
ing a thorough business training in a chemical works at Bremen, Ger- 
many. In 1868 he immigrated to America, and located for a time in 
New York, subsequently finding employment in various textile centers 
of the United States. He was employed in various silk mills in dif- 
ferent capacities until 1878, when he was given the position of man- 
ager of the ribbon department of William Wicke & Company, which 
concern had just started up a few looms to make cigar ribbons. A 
few years later he was admitted to partnership in the above firm, and 
given full charge of the textile branch of its business. L nder his 
able management the production, which then amounted at the utmost 
to five thousand yards per day, was increased to two hundred thou- 
sand yards, and the same embraced narrow ribbons and silk bindings 
of every description. 

In 1898 Mr. Brandes severed his connection with the William 
Wicke Company, and erected on his own property what is acknowl- 



202 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

edged to be one of the model ribbon factories in the United States. 
This factory, known as the JuHus Brandes Manufacturing Company 
(organized in 1899, with an authorized capital of $300,000), is 
located on the corner of Marshall and Dakota streets, Paterson. It 
is equipped to make all its own machinery — reeds and harnesses; to 
do its own dyeing and finishing in all its branches, drawing its water 
supply from a driven well; generating its own electric power; and 
capable of turning out any and every article that can be made on a 
ribbon loom, and producing at the present time, in 19 12, 200,000 
yards a day. The factory is located along the lines of the Delaware, 
Lackawanna & Western railroad, whence the coal supply is delivered 
direct to the boilers. The plant consists of two four-story brick 
buildings, each two hundred by fifty feet in lateral dimensions; a one- 
story machine shop, one hundred by fifty feet; a one-story dye house, 
one hundred by forty-five feet; together with engine and boiler 
houses, a separate pump house and a finishing shop (added in 1902) 
that is one hundred by fort}'-five feet in lateral dimensions. The 
buildings have a floor space of one hundred and twenty thousand 
s(]uare feet. The power for operating the looms is generated by two 
Hewes & Phillips Corliss engines of one hundred and fifty horse- 
power each, and two one hundred and twenty-five kilowatt Westing- 
house multiphase alternating current dynamos supply all the electric 
ju wer necessary to operate the machinery and furnish electric lights. 
As already noted, the machine shop is fully equipped for the manu- 
facture of Its own machinery, and the plant boasts a fire-proof vault 
of ample dimensions for the storage of silk. 

The Jeanette Mill, located on the corner of Sixth avenue and 
Twelfth street. College Point, New York, is an annex to the above 
factory, and this concern has an output of fifty thousand yards of nar- 
row ribbon per day. The throwing of the silk is done in Hawley, 
Wayne count}', Pennsylvania, by the Hawley Silk Company, of 
which Mr. Brandes is treasurer and general manager, and the entire 
output of which is used exclusively by the Julius Brandes Manufac- 
turing Company. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 203 

In view of the foregoing facts it is necessary to dwell upon the 
important position occupied by Mr. Brandes in the industrial world 
of Paterson. In addition to his manufacturing interests he is a mem- 
ber of the board of directors of the German American Trust Com- 
pany. Politically, Mr. Brandes is a stalwart Republican. He was 
Commissioner of Public Works in 1908 and 1909. His social and 
fraternal connections are as follows: Beethoven Lodge, No. 154, 
Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was worshipful master in 
1896-97-98 and in 1907; Mecca Temple, .Vncient Arabic Order, 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of New York; the Hamilton Club, 
Mecca Club, New Jersey Automobile Club, Paterson Turn \'erein, 
and the Mozart Singing Society. 



JAMES E. HOWELL 



JAMES EDWARD HOWELL, lawyer and jurist, was the eld- 
est son of William Chaiincey and Julia A. (Schofield) Howell, 
and was born in Beemerville, Wantage township. New Jersey, June 
25, 1848. 

He acquired his early education in the public schools of his 
district, after which he served in the capacity of school teacher, in 
the meanwhile preparing himself for college and studying law. In 
1868 he matriculated at the Michigan University Law School, enter- 
ing the class of 1870, and after his graduation therefrom he located 
in Newton, where he continued his reading, and in 1872 was admit- 
ted to the bar of New Jersey. The following two years he practiced 
his profession in Newton, and at the expiration of that time removed 
to Newark, where he has remained up to the present time (1913). 
In January, 1876, he entered into partnership with Joseph Coult in 
the practice of law in Newark, this connection continuing until April 
9, 1907, a period of thirty-one years, an uncommon occurrence in the 
law practice. In the last named year Mr. Howell was appointed 
one of the Vice-Chancellors of the State of New Jersey, in which 
capacity he is rendering most efficient service. He held several 
minor offices in the gift of his party, the Republican, one of them 
being membership on the board of the county sinking fund commis- 
sion, which he resigned in December, IQ08, in order to devote all 
his time to court work. 

He was one of the commissioners for the erection of the New- 
ark City Hall, and is one of the trustees of the Newark Free Public 
Librarv, and a member O'f the Essex Club and the Lotos and Re- 
publican clubs of New York. He was formerly vice-president of the 
Second National Bank and one of its directors. He attends the Re- 
formed church. Vice-Chancellor Howell is a man of scholarly attain- 
ments, and possesses a weight of character, a native sagacity, a far- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 205 

seeing judgment and a Hdclity of purpose that commands the respect 
of all. 

He married, June 13, 1877, Mary Lillian, eldest child of 
James H. and Mary (Thomson) Cummins, of Newton, New Jersey. 
One child, Thomson, was born December 21, 1888. 






JOHN PALMER HUTCHINSON 



JOHN PALMER HUTCHINSON, attorney-at-law and master 
in chancery in Bordentown, Burlington county, New Jersey, is 
a descendant of one of the old English families of this country. His 
American progenitor was John Hutchinson, who came from Eng- 
land with William Penn about 1700, settled in Bucks county, Penn- 
sylvania, where he became a wealthy landed proprietor, and married 
Phebe Kirkbride. The grandfather of Mr. Hutchinson was Randal 
Hutchinson, Sr., born April 20, 1795, died December 28, 185 1, 
married Mary Keler, born in 1800, died in 1837. His direct 
maternal ancestor was Caleb Shreve, son of Thomas, of the Rhode 
Island Colony, who removed to Long Island, and finally settled in 
Burlington county, New Jersey; he was born September 27, 1796, 
died August 10, 1834, married Martha R. Aaronson, born July 10, 
1797, died February 20, 1868. Another ancestor was Diederick 
Aaronson, who came from Llolland and settled on Long Island. All 
of these ancestors achieved success as merchants and agriculturists. 
Mahlon Hutchinson, father of the subject of this sketch, was born 
May 10, 1823, died September 10, 1896. He was an attorney and 
counsel!or-at-law of note in his day, and was a member of the New 
Jersey Legislature between 1850 and 1855. He also served as a 
presidential elector. He married Amy Newbold Shreve. 

John Palmer Hutchinson was born in Bordentown, Burlington 
county, New Jersey, March 29, 1849. For his preparatory educa- 
tion he attended the Lawrenceville School, at Lawrenceville, New 
Jersey, from which he was graduated in July, 1865. He at once 
matriculated at the Princeton University, from which he was grad- 
uated in the class of 1868, the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and 
Master of Arts being conferred upon him by that institution. He 
established himself in the active practice of the legal profession in 
1872, having chosen this as his life work in accordance with the ex- 



joir 



,80N 



JOHN i' vLMER HUTCHINSON, attorney-at-law and master 
in chancery in Bordentown, Burlington county, New Jersey, is 
a de^':cfidaiit of one of the old English families of this country. His 
American progenitor was John Hutchinson, who came from Eng- 
land with W.iSJnm Penn about 1700, settled in B"'- ■ ■•■■'■^v, Penn- 
sylvania, when' he became a wealthy landed proj narried 
Phcbe Kirk.bri..k- The grandfather of Mr. Hutci.i,i.-.M; .,i^ Randal 
Hutchinson, "-v., horn April 20, 1795, died December 28, 1S51, 
married Mari *■ c r. born in 1800, died in 1837. H 
maternal ancc:; . s Caleb Shreve, son of Thomas, of the 
Island Colony, t> ; ■ ■ tioved to Long Island, and finally setcieU .a 
Burlington cor. • . ■ w Jersey; he was born September 27, 1796, 
vlied August 10. . ■ .-. .riarried Martha R. Aaronson, born July 10, 
, , '' ' Ft! . 1868. Another ancestor was Diederigk 
Holland and settled on Long Island. All 
success as merchants and agriculturists. 
': i)f the subject of this sketch, was born 
■er 10, 1896. He was an attorney and 
is day, and was a member of the New 
i 1S50 and 1855. He also served as a 
' icd Amy Newbold Shreve. 

is born in Bordentown, Burlington 
849. For his preparatory educa- 
te School, at Lawrenceville, New 
^ ited in July, 1865. He at once 

'■\ I. versity, from which he was grad- 
i. I' -'ees of Bachelor of Arts and 

Ma<r."- him by that institution. He 

(.':"■: ' . "sf the legal pro* 

; - 'accordance w; 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCYCLOPEUIA 207 

pressed desire of his parents, whose only son he was. The success 
which has attended his eHorts in his professional work has been of a 
highly satisfactory character, and he has been connected with the 
settlement of some of the most important estates in that section of 
the county, as he has made that branch of the law a specialty. He 
is the senior partner in the firm of which one of his sons is also a 
member, and they ha\e offices in Bordentown, and in the Drexel 
building in Philadelphia. Mr. Hutchinson is connected with a num- 
ber of important enterprises of varied character, some of them 
being: Bordentown Banking Company, Burlington City Loan & 
Trust Company, Camden & Burlington Railroad Company, Union 
Transportation Company. New Jersey Historical Society, Pennsyl- 
vania I listorical Society, Genealogical Society of PcnnsyKania. His 
fraternal and social affiliations are with the Philadelphia Club of 
Philadelphia; Lodge No. 848, Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks; .\merican Jersey Cattle Club; Blooming Grove Hunting and 
Fishing Club, Pennsylvania; Philadelphia Society for Promoting 
Agriculture; New Jersey Society of Pennsylvania; is the treasurer of 
the American Jersey Club. He has given his unvarying and strong 
support to the principles of the Republican party, in whose interests 
he has been active. His religious membership is with the Society of 
Friends and the Presbyterian church. He is fond of outdoor sports 
of every character, those appealing especially to him being golfing, 
boating, fishing and shooting. 

Mr. Hutchinson married (first) December 11, 1872, .'\nnie, 
daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Conover) Harrison, granddaughter 
of Thomas and Sarah (Abbott) Harrison and of Theodorus and 
Rachel (Webb) Conover, and a direct descendant of Richard Har- 
rison, who came from England to New Jersey, in the flie boat 
"Martha." He married (second) November 12, 1888, Alice, 
daughter of Michael Earl and Rebecca (Stockton-White) Newbold, 
granddaughter of James and Lydia (Earl) Newbold, and of Charles 
Haight and Rebecca (Stockton) White, and a descendant of Michael 
Newbold, who came from the parish of Handsworth, Yorkshire, to 



208 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Burlington, New Jersey, in 1679, and died in Burlington county, 
1692. Children by the first marriage: i. John Harrison, is an 
attorney and counsellor at law, and is associated with his father in 
legal work. 2. Isaac Harrison, is a farmer and horticulturist in Jobs- 
town, Burlington county. New Jersey. Children by the second mar- 
riage: 3. Mahlon, farmer and horticulturist in Georgetown, New 
Jersey. 4. Newbold, a farmer and forester in Georgetown, New 
Jersey. 5. Alice Lydia, also resides in Georgetown, New Jersey. 
Mr. Hutchinson is a man of fine character and sterling worth, 
daring all in his defense of the right, and modest and retiring when 
his services are not in demand. He is gifted with a clear and ana- 
lytical mind, a trait which has been greatly developed by his many 
years of practice in the legal profession. His presentment of a case 
is a concise and convincing one, and his conduct of it always calm 
and deliberate, this alone ensuring the success which he attains in the 
majority of instances. 



THOMAS B. HOLMES 



THOMAS B. HOLMES, editor of the "Daily State Gazette," 
Frenton, New Jersey, was born in Uncasville, New London, 
Connecticut, on May 15, 1859. He was the son of Thomas B. and 
Mary Eliza (Sleuman) Holmes, and their only surviving child. 

The Holmes family is of English descent, and only two genera- 
tions resident in America. Thomas B. ( i ) Holmes was born in 
Bishop's Condle, England, receiving his early education in the schools 
of his native land. When eighteen years of age he emigrated to 
America. His trade of machinist developed the inventive side of his 
intellect, and he soon attained some renown as the deviser of various 
improvements. He was given the position of chief mechanic in a 
large Connecticut cotton mill, where he worked until his death in 
1864. His wife was the daughter of Charles Sleuman, who had 
married Betsy, daughter of Jonathan Maynard, all Connecticut resi- 
dents. 

Thomas B. Holmes inherited troin his inventive father a mind 
of extreme intellectual keenness, endowed with all the wit, grasp of 
current events and their meaning, literary ability, and brilliant 
thought which make a successful writer of editorials. His native 
talents were developed through the medium of the public schools of 
New London, to which was added the course offered by the village 
graded school. He also did much study by himself in his rare hours 
of leisure, and like every man of brains graspetl the slightest oppor- 
tunity for self-improvement. His family was not a wealthy one, and 
consequently following the custom of the time young Holmes was 
apprenticed at the age of thirteen years for two years following. 
After this he went to work in a cotton mil! at Palmertown, Connec- 
ticut, keeping at work there eight months. He then returned to 
Uncasville, to work for a short while in a general dry goods store; 

NO— H 



210 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

then started to learn the trade of weaving in a woolen mill. Failing 
health forced him to resign this position at the end of six months. 

A grocery store at New London, Connecticut, offered the oppor- 
tunity for which he looked, of occupation which was not so confining 
and deleterious in its general effect as factory work. He showed such 
enthusiasm in taking up his new trade that by the end of two months 
his employers trusted him with the management of the business. 
However, six months of this kind of store work also proved too much 
for his enfeebled health and he resigned again, and went west to Red 
Oak, Iowa. 

His literary gifts were now called into play to earn his living, 
and in a short while he was made city editor of the Red Oak "Ex- 
press." He was now about nineteen years of age. The wide prairie 
afforded him plenty of outdoor life, and he took long horseback rides 
across it, gathering in subscriptions for the "Weekly Express" of 
Red Oak. Moving on to Fargo, Dakota, he began anew his news- 
paper career, entering the employ of the "Daily Argus" as a re- 
porter. He was later promoted to city editor on this journal, and 
remained for two and a half years. Being of a roving disposition, 
and tiring of the far west, he then found a new home at Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, where, as telegraph editor of the "Evening Journal," 
and later as managing editor of the St. Paul "Herald," he became 
very well known among the newspaper fraternity. After several 
years of this experience he became a special writer for the Chicago 
"Herald." Returning to St. Paul he was placed in charge of the St. 
Paul department of the Minneapolis "Daily Tribune." Another con- 
nection was with the St. Paul "Daily Globe," as its police reporter, 
being raised in a year to assistant editor, and made managing editor 
of the Sunday editions. 

In 1887, after nine years of editorial experience, he sought the 
Pacific slope, and settled at Oakland, California, becoming managing 
editor of the Oakland "Herald." Moving later to San Jose he was 
there connected with the "Evening Herald." He then passed on 
to El Verano, a town which he Is said to have built and where for 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 211 

two and a half years he stayed, publishing a weekly paper known as 
the "Whistle," another called the "N'itagraph" which was exclusively 
devoted to fruit culture, and a thirty-two page monthly called the 
"Californian," which related the details of the wine-growing in- 
dustry. 

Eastern fields now attracted the migratory editor, and Mr. 
Holmes returned to Connecticut. He settled at Hamburg, on the 
Connecticut river, engaging in special writing for magazines and 
newspapers. In 1894 he moved to Trenton, New Jersey, and was 
tendered the editorship of the "Daily State Gazette." He has occu- 
pied the chair of editor with the utmost credit and won for himself 
a high reputation as a man of versatility, executive ability, and con- 
siderable originality. The public affairs of city, county and State, 
are of course topics with which he deals and his efforts are crowned 
with success in attracting the attention and respect of an increasing 
number of readers. 

In benevolent matters he takes part, having served as a nicniber 
of the board of managers of the State Home for Girls seven years, 
and treasurer of that institution six years. On the Board of Health 
of Trenton he has also ser\-ed both as a member and as secretary nine 
years. 1 le is commissioner of Public Reports of New Jersey, a posi- 
tion to which he was appointed in 1909 by Governor Fort. In Ma- 
sonic circles he belongs to Ashler Lodge, No. 70, Free and Accepted 
Masons: has attained the thirty-second degree of Masonry; has been 
vice-grand mogul of the Supreme Forest, Tall Cedars of Lebanon; 
and belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Loyal 
Order of Moose. He is strong in his support of Republican prin- 
ciples. 

Thomas B. (2) Holmes married, No\ember 16, 1S86, I'ior- 
ence S. Adams, daughter of William ami Charlotte (Quincey) 
Adams. Their family consists of two sons: Thomas B. (p,), and 
Erwin William. 



ALEXANDER BENNELL 



HON. ALEXANDER BENNELL was born in Chelmsford, 
Essex county, England, March i, 1844, '^he son of James 
and Caroline Bennell. He received his education at Sherman's 
private school in that city, and at the age of fourteen years was 
apprenticed to the grocery trade. 

In 1867 iMr. Bennell came to America, and in 1869 started a 
grocery business in Jersey City under the firm name of Turner & 
Bennell. They soon became the leading merchants of that city, build- 
ing up a very large business of fancy groceries, wines and cigars. 
This firm gradually came to be known all over the State, and con- 
tinued in business for twenty-five years. The firm of Turner & Ben- 
nell dissolved partnership in 1888, Mr. Bennell starting a grocery 
business in Morristown, New Jersey, under the firm name of Alex- 
ander Bennell & Company. The business here soon became very 
successful and was the leading store, commanding all the finest trade 
in Morristown and its suburbs. After twenty-five years in Jersey 
City and twent)' in Morristown, Mr. Bennell in 1893 sold his busi- 
ness to Acker, Merrall & Condit Company, of New York City, and 
retired. 

In Jersey City, Mr. Bennell was one of the organizers of the 
Palma Athletic Club; for many years manager of the Philharmonic 
Society, and a member of the Masonic Lodge of the Temple, No. 
1 10. During the years 1906-07, Mr. Bennell, as mayor of Morris- 
town, elected on the Republican ticket, started improvements on the 
Morristown Green, signed the first bond issued by the city for the 
sewerage disposal plant, started work on the Morristown Municipal 
Building, and was the instigator of the free playground to be set 
aside for the use of children. He was always active in all city im- 
provement work, and is a member of the Washington Association, 
the New Jersey Historical Society, Public Improvement Association, 



u/ /T">-t^ ^ ^^^^^^-^Cac^^^-^.^^U^ /V^-^— ' 



lilOGRAPllICAL EXCVCLOPEDIA 213 



Ci\ic Association, Cincinnati Lodge, Tapkaow Club, and is a mem- 
ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

In 1886, Mr. Bennell married Matilda LaFevre, daughter of 
William and Matilda H. Coulter, of Jersey City, New Jersey. Wil- 
liam Coulter was for forty-five years (1840-1885) master of the 
Pennsylvania express train running between New York and Phila- 
delphia, and brought the body of Abraham Lincoln from Washing- 
ton to New York. Mr. Bennell has one si>n, Raymond James. 



WILLIAM C. PARRY 



DR. WILLIAM C. PARRY, who, at the time of his untimely 
death, was one of the best known and highly respected citi- 
zens of Burlington county, was born at Warminster, Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 17th of May, 1849. After teaching school for 
a year, he entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, from 
which he graduated with the class of 1872. He commenced the 
practice of his profession at Edington, Pennsylvania, and remained 
there until his marriage, June 16, 1875, to Mary M. Haines, the 
only daughter of Barclay Haines, formerly a prominent railroad man 
of South Jersey. He then continued the practice of medicine at 
Mount Holly, the historic county seat of Burlington county. About 
ten years later he removed to Hainesport, a picturesque village two 
miles from Mount Holly, where he spent the remainder of his life. 
His attractive home there, with the beautiful arranged grounds slop- 
ing down to the banks of the winding Rancocas creek, was always a 
center of social activity. 

In the early nineties, he was actively interested in organizing the 
farmers of South Jersey into organizations, aiming to improve their 
conditions, and for a time he was secretary of the New Jersey Dairy- 
men's Association. For a number of years he was a director of the 
Mount Holly fair and his efforts were instrumental in bringing to 
the fair the prosperity which it then enjoyed. 

In the fall of 1894, he was nominated as the candidate for 
State Senator, by the Burlington county Republican convention. At 
the ensuing election he received 7,147 votes to 4,317 for his Demo- 
cratic rival, or a plurality of 2,830. He served his three-year term 
in the Senate with marked fidelity and ability. His colleagues in the 
Senate included such men as Former Assistant Postmaster-General 
William M. Johnson and Former Governors Foster M. Voorhees 
and Edward Caspar Stokes. He was active in the work of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 215 

Senate, both in the committee room and on the floor of the Senate. 
His fight on the oleomargarine hill and in favor of a bill decreasing 
the salaries of judges attracted wide attention. He also made a 
strong fight in favor of a measure providing for a small board of 
freeholders. He was regarded :is the chief champion of the farmers 
of the State in the Senate and w.iged many an earnest battle in their 
behalf. 

After the expiration of his term in the Senate, he became inter- 
ested in the development of the trolley line from Moorestown to 
Mount Holly and Burlington. It was through his efforts more than 
that of anyone else that the people of Burlington county finally 
secured this line. At the time of his death he was president of the 
Burlington County Transit Company which controlled the line. 

Born of good old Quaker stock, he was an active member of 
the Society of Friends and was for a number of years the superin- 
tendent of the Friends Sabbath Day School at Mount Holly. 

For a number of years he was a member of the staff of physi- 
cians of the Burlington County Hospital at Mount Holly, where his 
counsel and service were ever cheerfully and freely given. He was 
an active member of the Burlington County Medical Society and 
frequently represented it at State and National conventions. Al- 
though his many other duties curtailed his practice in his latter years 
to some extent, he remained true to his profession to the end, healing 
the sick and bringing relief to the suffering. He was a member of the 
State Tuberculosis Commission at the time of his death ami was an 
earnest and active advocate of stamping out the causes from which 
tuberculosis arises. 

Always interested in local affairs, he was a director of the .Mount 
1 lolly Safe Deposit & Trust Company from its organization and for 
several years preceding his death he was a member of the Lumber- 
ton Board of Education. He died on the 28th of November, 191 1, 
from pneumonia, after an illness of only four days. His death was 
a shock to the entire community as perhaps no man in Burlington 
county had a wider circle of friends or was more loved. His funeral 



216 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

was held in the Friends' meeting house at Mount Holly and was the 
largest that had been held there for years. The service of the order 
of the Elks was read at the grave. Few men were more unselfish or 
devoted their lives so cheerfully to the service of others. As Charles 
H. Engle said in a beautiful tribute at the Friends' Sabbath school at 
Mount Holly : "In Dr. Parry the friendless had a friend, the father- 
less a father, the poor a benefactor. In the bottom of his heart was 
rooted every tender and sympathetic virtue." 

He is survived by his widow and two children, Lydia M. Parry, 
a graduate of Swarthmore College, and William H. Parry, a mem- 
ber of the Essex County Bar, with offices at Newark. 






{2u'Li-4 //(' D^/iHieMi 



— — ^ 



.FAMES WHI'I AKEK 



S WHITAKER TRENL HA ! 

'bition in the financial and generr 
".■ Jersey, Jue to his excel', 
crimination, his thorough 

By his well direcce/! 

•vas assist'jd materinl'M, 

well descrv ing i>f w. 



■.hard, the ear: .incestor, was a land- 

■•■' England, ,,. , ,■., during the reign of 
rled with the Damosels and Moleynes in 
■■:'[ .nj ' homas Trenchard, Knight, 

ancestor Trenchard, was high sheriti 

., and was i^r. ;;;:tcu ; . l^-.-ti j^rnes I., December 14, 1613. 
■, a grandson of TH'^'^'t; fVenchard, Knight, was a mem- 
. rliament for I 1^178, and a member 

.1 of Revolufi King's Head Tavern, 

-treet. ¥ ters of this nature hi- 

nted as a - uick of evidence, and, 

intercessio ' ho was a firm friend o( the 

d family, •>- obtained, and Si-- ^' '"' --is 

ted to pa IS one of those who I 

ro Williri I 1 come over and seiAe tru- J -u.iMi 

He was 1 ' Whitehall, October 29, 1689, was 

e of Chester, and held this until 

the lour suiis of Sir John Trenchard, was the 



^•aSCC" ^aair 



^l.... •/, 



/ 



JAMES WHITAKEH TRENCHAHl) 



JAMES WHlIAKliR TRENCHARD occupies a most enviable 
position in the financial and general business circles of Bridge- 
ton, New Jersey, due to liis excellent powers of management, his 
keen discrimination, his thorough reliability and his indefatigable 
energy. By his well directed eflorts in the financial affairs of the 
city he has assisted materially in advancing its general prosperity, 
and he is well deserving of mention among the prominent and repre- 
sentative citizens. The Trenchard family from which he is descended 
is old English stock, and the name had gained fame in England long 
before it was brought to the shores of this country. 

Pogames Trenchard, the earliest known ancestor, was a land- 
owner in Dorset county, England, in 1090, during the reign of 
Henry I. They intermarried with the Damosels and Moleynes in 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Thomas Trenchard, Knight, 
the direct ancestor of James Whitaker Trenchard, was high sheriff 
of Dorset, and was knighted by King James I., December 14, 1613. 

John, a grandson of Thomas Trenchard, Knight, was a mem- 
ber of parliament for Taunton, February 20, 1678, and a member 
of the club of Revolutionaries which met at the King's Head Tavern, 
in Fleet street. For his activity in public matters of this nature he 
was arrested as a conspirator, released for lack of evidence, and, 
upon the intercession of William Penn, who was a firm friend of the 
Trenchard family, a free pardon was obtained, and Sir John was 
again elected to parliament. He was one of those who united in the 
invitation to William of Orange to come over and seize the English 
throne. He was knighted at Whitehall, October 29, 1689, was 
appointed to the office of chief justice of Chester, anil held this until 
his death. 

George, one of the four sons of Sir John Trenchard, was the 



218 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

first of this branch to come to America, and he made his home in 
Salem county, New Jersey. 

George Trenchard, a son of the preceding, was sheriff of Salem 
county from 1723 to 1725, served as deputy sheriff for West Jersey, 
and as assessor for the same district. His grandson, Edward Trench- 
ard, was in the United States Na\y, was in command of the "Consti- 
tution," at the sief:,e of Tripoli, in command of the "Madison," 
during the War of 1812, and had command of a number of other 
famous men-of-war. George, a grandson of George Trenchard, the 
immigrant, was attorney-general of West Jersey from 1769 to 1776, 
prominent in the Salem Committee of Safety, and the Camden Sec- 
ond Battalion, Salem County Light Horse, and one of those to whom 
Colonel Mawhood's letter was addressed; he married Mary, a daugh- 
ter of Judge Andrew Sinnickson, of Salem. 

John Trenchard, of the seventh generation, was engaged in im- 
portant milling, lumber and shipping interests, and was a member of 
the New Jersey Legislature, 1827-28. 

James Howell Trenchard, a son of the preceding, was engaged 
in the general mercantile, milling and lumber business for many 
years. Surveying, however, had always had a peculiar attraction for 
him, and from his earliest youth he had displayed unusual ability as 
a mathematician. So complete and extensive was his knowledge of 
all matters connected with the survey and titles of property in that 
section of the country, that he was frequently in request in order to 
settle disputes as to boundaries and to act as commissioner and sur- 
veyor. He held the office of city surveyor at the time of his death, 
and while holding this position he established the present grade of 
the streets of Bridgeton. At this time he was also serving his second 
term as a councilman, representing the Second Ward of the city. It 
was a result of his efforts that Bridgeton has its present fine system 
of water supply. He married Mary, daughter of Judge William D. 
Barrett. William Barrett Trenchard, his second son served as county 
clerk for many years, at last absolutely declining reelection. 

James Whitaker Trenchard, son of James Howell and Mary 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 219 

(Barrett) IVenchard, was born at Centreton, Salem county, New 
Jersey, September 17, 1S43. ^ 'i<-" public schools at Centreton and 
Fairton, Cumberland county, furnished his early education, and when 
he had completed the course prescribed for the attendants at them, 
he commenced his business career as an employee in a general country 
store at Fairton. He was thus usefully occupied until the outbreak of 
the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Twenty-fifth New' Jersey 
Volunteer Infantry, was commissioned as sergeant of Company D, 
ser\ed through the full nine months of his enlistment, being mustered 
out of the service June 20, 1863. He took, part in many of the im- 
portant engagements of this momentous struggle, among the most 
notable being: The battle of Fredericksburg, and the engagement 
near Suffolk and Chancellorsville, which drove General Longstreet 
into retreat. He resumed his position as general clerk in a store 
after he was mustered out, and in 1870 accepted the position of clerk 
in the Cumberland National Bank of Bridgeton, with which institu- 
tion he was connected in various capacities until 1883. At that time 
he became cashier of the Bridgeton National Bank, an office he filled 
faithfully for a period of twenty years. So valuable had been his 
ser\ices in the interests of the bank during this long period, that it 
was recognized at this time, 1903, in a most fitting and appropriate 
manner. Mr. Trenchard was elected to the chief office of the insti- 
tution in which he had served so long a time, and as president of the 
bank since that time, the affairs of the enterprise have prospered, and 
his unanimous election to this office has been for the benefit of all 
concerned. The political affiliations of Mr. Trenchard are with the 
Democratic party, of which he is a staunch supporter. His religious 
allegiance is with the Presbyterian church. He is a past grand master 
of the Independent CJrder of (^dd Fellows in New Jersey; is a mem- 
ber and past commander of the ;\. L. Robeson Post, Grand Army of 
the Republic; recording secretary of the Second Battalion, Veteran 
Association, Twenty-fifth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. An- 
other financial enterprise with which he is closely connected is the 
West Jersey Marl i^ Transportation Company. 



220 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Mr. IVenchard married (lirst) Gertrude C, daughter of Levi 
Bond, of Bridgeton, New Jersey; she died, leaving one son: Frank 
Fisk, born May 5, 1870, died June 11, 1894. He married (second) 
April 14, 1885, Amanda NL Powell, a widow, of Fairton, New 
Jersey. Mr. Trenchard maintains a constant and lively interest in 
all that touches the advancement and improvement of Bridgeton, and 
has the welfare of the community deeply at heart. He is honored in 
business circles and highly esteemed by all who have dealings with 
him, whether of a business or social nature. 



GILBERT JOHNSTON 



DR. GILBERT JOHNSTON, a leading osteopathist and prom- 
inent citizen of Paterson, New Jersey, was born January 29, 
1S50, in Coventry, England, where he was educated in the public 
schools, and later in the Rugby School, which was distant twelve 
miles from his home. He was the son of Thomas and Ann Maria 
Johnston; his father was a builder and contractor. 

Dr. Johnston was graduated from London Medical College in 
1873, ^^'it^h the degree of M. D., but he did not then engage in the 
curati\e art. Instead, he studied mechanics, especially with the de- 
velopment and introduction of new ideas applied to the safe opera- 
tion of trains upon railroads. For three years he was engaged on 
this work on the London Northwestern railway. He then came to 
the United States and engaged with Union Switch & Signal Com- 
pany, of Pittsburgh, with his headquarters at Philadelphia. He had 
charge of the installation of the Saxby and Farmer interlocking sys- 
tem for railroads on the Pennsylvania railroad, which was the first 
to adopt the semaphore system in the States. He was the first and is 
the oldest signal engineer in the United States. He continued in 
this work until 1900, but in the meantime, in 189S, he studied osteo- 
pathy, and in 1900 was graduated from the Columbia College of 
Osteopathy of Chicago, and in the latter year began practice in Pat- 
erson, which he continues. He was the first and is the oldest osteo- 
pathist in Paterson. Dr. Johnston was also a graduate of the Col- 
lege of Optics of Chicago, but owing to an unfortunate accident 
which deprived him of the use of his left eye, he discontinuctl special 
optical practice. 

On July 4, 1874, in Coventry, England, Gilbert Johnston was 
married to Mary Ann Bromfield, daughter of William and Ann 
Bromfield, her father being a watchcase finisher of Coventry. Their 
eldest child, Ann Maria, was born there. Coming to America in 



222 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

1876, Dr. Johnston lived in a number of places, including Philadel- 
phia, and his other children were all born in America : Gilbert W., 
Henrv, Donald Edgar and Amelia. In 1S88, Dr. Johnston made 
his permanent home in Suffern, New York, where he has been as 
always a most active citizen. He was one of the originators of and 
is treasurer of the fire department of Suffern, foreman of the hose 
company there, and was city treasurer for eleven years until 19 12, 
when he declined to longer fill the office on account of so many other 
pressing duties. 

Dr. Johnston is a Mason, Shriner; a member of the original 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity, the mother 
of the American order, and is next to the oldest living member of 
the oldest lodge of Odd Fellows in the United States. He is a mem- 
ber of the Ancient Order of Foresters and of the Knights of Pythias. 
He is vice-president of the Market Street Business Men's Association 
of Paterson; member of the committee of transportation of the 
Board of Trade of Paterson; secretary and treasurer of the Paterson 
Poultry, Pigeon and Pet Stock Association, and president of the 
Rockland County (New York) Beekeepers' Association. At the 
sixth annual exhibition of the Empire Poultry Association, held in 
the Grand Central Palace in New York City, in 19 12, his display of 
white Orpingtons took second prize. In 19 11, at the Paterson ex- 
hibition, Dr. Johnston won the silver cup given for first prize, and 
also won the silver cup first prize in 19 12. This extraordinary cata- 
logue of activities shows how versatile is Dr. Johnston's nature. His 
good wife is still living in the home at Suffern. 



JOHV 



is and 

■'ni-n\ t- 



Vork 
count)-, 

lanager 



JOHN S. LESLIE 



IP those who claim that tortiine has fa\ored certain indi\iduals 
above others will but investigate the cause of success and 
failure, it will be found that the former is largely due to the improve- 
ment of opportunity, the latter to the neglect of it. Fortunate 
environments encompass nearly every man at some stage of his 
career, but the strong man and the successful man is he who realizes 
that the proper moment has come, that the present and not the future 
holds his opportunity. The man who makes use of the Now and not 
the To Be is the one who passes on the highway of life others who 
started out ahead of him, and reaches the goal of prosperity' in ad- 
vance of them. It is this quality in John S. Leslie that has made 
him a leader in the business world and won him an enviable name in 
connection with manufacturing interests in the vicinity of New York 
City, Paterson, Passaic county, and at Lyndhurst, Bergen count)'. 
New Jersey, where he is at present president and general manager 
of the Leslie Company, founders and manufacturers. His home is 
at Paterson, New Jersey. 

John Samuel Leslie has been a resident of the LInited States 
since 1884. He was born in the township of Garafraxa, county of 
Wellington, province of Ontario, Canada, July 18, i8<;i. He supple- 
mented a public school education with a course of study in the Insti- 
tute of Technology, at Toronto, Canada. From 1871 to 1884 he 
was connccteil with the postoffice department of Canada and in the 
latter year became interested, with his brother. Major Ldward Leslie, 
in the development of the rotary snow plow. In the fall of 1883 
and during the ensuing winter the first working model of the above 
plow was built at the Poison Iron Works, Toronto, and tested on the 
tracks of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

In June, 1884, Mr. Leslie came to New York City and organ- 
izcil the Rotary Steam Snow Shovel Manufacturing Company to 



224 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

promote the rotary snow plow in the United States. He was elected 
the first president of the company and held that office until January, 
^.900, when the Leslie Brothers Manufacturing Company of Pat- 
erson, New Jersey, was incorporated under the laws of the State of 
New Jersey and purchased the business of the former company. He 
was elected president and general manager of the Leslie Brothers 
Manufacturing Company and retained that incumbency until 1896, 
when he disposed of his interest in that concern to Mr. John S. 
Cooke, president of the Cooke Locomotive & Machine Company, 
of Paterson. From 1896 to 1905 he carried on in his own name a 
successful business in railroad and marine specialties. In 1905 he 
organized and had incorporated under the laws of the State of New 
Jersey, the Leslie Company, founders and manufacturers, of Lynd- 
hurst. New Jersey. He was immediately elected president and gen- 
eral manager of this corporation and he has retained those incum- 
bencies to the present time, in 19 12. 

In connection with the rotary snow plow it may be said here that 
this was the first implement of its kind to successfully cope with and 
remove any snow or ice found on railroad tracks, even through the 
most northerly and westerly zones, both across the plains and through 
the Rocky Mountains. It proved a distinct innovation in the operat- 
ing of railroads across the North American continent. 

The Leslie railroad and marine specialties manufactured were 
of the highest class of materials used in railroad and marine service 
and were adopted by the leading railroads on this continent and by 
the leading steamship companies on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Great 
Lakes, and by the United States Navy and other departments of the 
United States Government. So successful was the business that in 
order to meet the demand for the specialties handled It became neces- 
sary to establish a factory for their production. This resulted in 
the organization and incorporation of the Leslie Company, founders 
and manufacturers, referred to above. In 190^ this concern pur- 
chased a tract of eight acres of land on the line of the Delaware, 
Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the town of Lyndhurst, town- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 225 

ship ot Union, Bergen county, New Jersey, the same being located 
about eight miles distant from the City Hall Sciuare, in New York 
City. On this site was erected a large, modern plant, equipped with 
the very latest and most up-to-date machinery adapted to the manu- 
facture of its various and numerous products. One of the leading 
articles manufactured is the Leslie pressure regulator. 

During the past twenty-eight years Mr. Leslie's close connec- 
tions and business relations with the personnel of the leading rail- 
road, steamship, shipbuilding, mining and manufacturing companies 
and with the various engineering bureaus of the I ^nited States Gov- 
ernment have enabled him to form an unusually wide circle of busi- 
ness and personal friends throughout the L-nited States. His exten- 
sive travels have enabled him to visit and to thoroughly familiarize 
himself with almost every climate on the North American continent. 

The Leslie family home is maintained at No. 687 East Twenty- 
sixth street, Paterson, New Jersey. Mr. Leslie manifests a deep 
and sincere interest in community affairs, but does not participate 
actively in politics, all his time being devoted to his extensive busi- 
ness interests. He is a man of fine mentality and broad human sym- 
pathy. He is always courteous, kindly and affable, and those who 
know him personally accord him the highest esteem. His life has 
been exemplary in all respects and he has ever supported those inter- 
ests which are calculated to uplift and benefit humanity, while his 
own high moral worth is deserving of the highest commendation. 

NC— 13 



WILLIAM HESTON PRUDEN 



AMONG the professional men of Paterson, New Jersey, William 
Heston Pruden, D. D. S., admittedly occupies a leading 
position, gained through natural abilit)', combined with close appli- 
cation and perseverance, factors that have contributed most, in 
this country, towards making our successful men, for a man's 
material inheritance may be squandered without leaving him better, 
perhaps worse, for having possessed it, but what he gains through 
his own efforts has a double blessing attached, from the value of the 
possession and the benefit of the experience to the spiritual and 
mental growth of the possessor. 

Dr. Pruden was born May 15, 1861, at Hanover Neck, Morris 
county, New Jersey, son of John J. and Emmaline (Irwin) Pruden. 
His father was a farmer and also followed the trade of a carpenter; 
and both he and his wife were of respected families in the commun- 
ity. Dr. Pruden was amply fitted by preliminary education for tak- 
ing up his profession, having spent seven years in the district schools 
of Hanover Neck, two years at the private school of Miss Anna 
Cook, at Westville, New Jersey, and four years at Honesdale Acad- 
emy, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 
1878. After deciding upon the profession of dentistry he studied 
five years in the office of Dr. B. F. Luckey, of Paterson, later taking 
a course in the New York College of Dentistry, graduating there- 
from in 1888, at which time he received honorable mention for the 
first prize. Later in that same year he opened an office on his own 
account in the rooms previously occupied by Vice-Chancellor Steven- 
son, where he remained four years, moving from there to the Muzzy 
Building. This last location was in the path of the great fire of 
1902, and owing to that catastrophe Dr. Pruden was compelled to 
seek other quarters. He thereupon purchased the plot on the south- 



UIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 227 



west corner of Church and Ellison streets, and erected the Pruden 
Building, where he is practicing at the present time (19 13). 

He is a member of the Central Dental Association of Northern 
New Jersey, and has served that organization as president. He 
holds membership in Joppa Lodge, No. 29, Free and Accepted 
Masons; Lodge No. 60, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; 
the Hamilton Club; the North Jersey Country Club, and the Ridge- 
wood Country Club. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion 
he and his family are attendants of the First Baptist Church of Pat- 
ersoii. 

Mr. Pruden married, i\Lay 6, 1890, Margaret Van Houten, 
daughter of William and Catherine Van Emburg (Demarest) Van 
Houten. Dr. and Mrs. Pruden have two children: Kenneth Clyde, 
born August 7, 1894, and Florence, born July 17, 1896. 



SAMUEL H. BULLOCK 



AS a cosmopolitan nation, America is distinctive. From the 
four quarters of the globe men have come to her shores, 
and the most heterogeneous elements have been rapidly assimilated. 
To no country, howe\er, does she owe more than to England, 
from whose pro\inces have come men of undoubted integrity, of 
determined purpose, of mental vigor and endurance, men who are 
both builders and conservators. When one man passes another 
on the highway to prosperity and high standing in the community, 
it is because he has the power to properly use the advantages which 
surround the entire human race. It is this power which has made 
Samuel H. Bullock, of Trenton, Mercer county. New Jersey, one of 
the leading men in the city. 

His father, a native of England, came to America in 1867, and 
lived for a time in the State of Ohio, where he was engaged in the 
manufacture of bricks. Removing to Trenton, New Jersey, he be- 
came identified with the pottery business as a salesman, and continued 
in this line until his death. His wife was Emma Nutt, who was 
heiress to a large estate of which her guardians never gave a proper 
accounting. Fhey had several children. 

Samuel H., son of Charles and Emma (Nutt) Bullock, was 
born at Longton, Staffordshire, England, December 14, 1861, and 
has practically spent his entire life in the United States. At the age 
of nine jears he became a pupil in the public schools of Trenton, 
where his parents were then residing, and was graduated from the 
New Jersey State Normal School in the class of 1877. A supple- 
mentary course in Eatin and Greek was then taken, from which he 
was graduated with honor in 1880. For a period of two years he 
was identified with the profession of teaching, during this time doing 
substitute and coaching work. Being of a \ery ambitious and ener- 
getic nature, he had utilized his spare time while he was still at school 
in working as an errand boy in a grocery store, and in this manner 



IIIOGRAPUICAL EXCYCLOPEDIA 229 



had gained a very practical knowledge of this line of business. He 
now put this experience to practical use, and in association with his 
brother, Kdward C, established a grocery business on a modest scale. 
The excellent management of .Mr. Bullock soon enabled him to in- 
c: case the scope of this enterprise so that, in the course of about fif- 
teen years the business had increased enormously, and their annual 
sales amounted to approximately se\enty-Hve thousand dollars. But 
it is not to business alone that Mr. Bullock has given his energies in 
so beneficial a manner. He has ever had the public welfare deeply 
and truly at heart, and has ever been ready to devote his time and 
means to the public service. As a Republican appointee he has been 
a member of the city board of education since 1897, and when the 
Democratic party was in power, Mr. Bullock was appointed by that 
faction. During this time he has served at times as president of the 
board, and as chairman of the committee on grounds and buildings, 
and as member of the committee on teachers. For many years he has 
been a member of Grace Protestant Episcop;\l Church, of Trenton, 
has been senior warden of the parish and superintendent of the .Sun- 
day school. His fraternal affiliations are as follows: Past president 
of the Sons of St. George; past president and trustee of the National 
Union; past chancellor and trustee of the Knights of Pythias; and 
past officer of the Knights of Khorassan. On the 5th of November, 
1909, he was elected to the office of surrogate of Mercer county by 
a majoritv of over 3,000, over Edward L. Katzenbach, his Demo- 
cratic opponent, who is one of the most widely known lawyers in the 
State. 

Mr. Bullock married, at Trenton, New Jersey, August 26, 
1 89 1, Emily, daughter of Thomas and Edna Bettely. Children: 
John E., born July 11, 1892; Arthur D., June 21, 1895. Through- 
out his career Mr. Bullock has always maintained the fidelity to prin- 
ciple and earnestness of endeavor that characterized him in his youth. 
His success has not been merely that of gaining prominence among 
his fellow men, but he has won the confidence of his associates and 
has the supreme satisfaction of knowing that his efforts for the com- 
mon good have not been iTiaile in vain. 



HUGH H. HAMILL 



AMONG the leading citizens of Trenton, New Jersey, who 
attained a distinct recognition by reason of the services per- 
fonned by him in advancing the welfare and prosperity of the 
city, was the late Hugh H. Haniill, who was prominently identi- 
fied with financial and social affairs for many years. He was the son 
of the Rev. Samuel M., D. D., and Matilda (Green) Hamill, the 
former having been for many years the preceptor and head master 
of the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial School. 

Hugh H. Hamill was born in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Au- 
gust II, I 81; I. His preparatory education was conducted under the 
preceptorship of his father, after which he matriculated at Princeton 
College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1871 with the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts. He at once devoted himself to the 
study of law in the office of his cousin, Hon. Caleb S. Green, of Tren- 
ton, was admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law in 1877, and as a 
counsellor-at-law in 1888. Having established himself in practice 
in Trenton, he was fully occupied with his professional work until 
1890, when he became president of the Trenton Trust & Safe De- 
posit Company and the Real Estate Title Company, to which he was 
compelled to devote a large share of his time. For this reason he, to 
a great extent, was obliged to give up his professional work, but he 
was still heard in court on especial occasions. He was elected to a 
number of other corporation offices, among them being directorship 
in the Mercer Trust Company, National Carbon Company, New 
Jersey Public Service Corporation, Schenectady Trust Company, 
American Light & Traction Company, etc. As a director of the 
Princeton Theological Seminary, his efforts in behalf of that institu- 
tion were of great benefit. The important business affairs with 
which Mr. Hamill was connected did not permit him to accept public 
office, although frequently invited to do so. The only exceptions he 



J'^i^.'J'^ 



HU( VMILL 



A^ 



attained a distinct recognition by reason of the services .per- 
"inned by him in advancing the welfare and p- the 

t.ily, was the 'ate Hugh H. Hamill, who was pn cnti- 

fied with financial and social affairs for many years. son 

of the Rc' - \(., D. D., and Matilda (Gree the 

former ha r many years the preceptor a ster 

oft!.'. ' ca! and Commercial Schoci. 

'i'>rn in Lawrenceville, New Jersey .\u 
education was conducteci 
svhich he matriculated ai ; 
"uated in the class of 1871 with the 
ie at once devoted himself to the 
iisin, Hon. Caleb S. Green, of Tren- 
,!n attorney-at-law in 1877, and as a 
V ''^■i>: Having established himself in practice 
■■■■Af huHv i, Tupied with his professional work until 
/f^i-ft f'^ " « i\nn< ;v >..;ent of the Trenton Trust & Safe De- 
]■ state Title Company, to which he was 
•'are of his time. For this reason he, to 
io give up his professional wo; 
special occasions. He was ei. 
:-, offices, among them being directorship 
inv, National Carbon Company, New 
jei.'M. 1 tion, Schenectady Tnist Company, 

■> s-npany, etc. As a director of the 

'lis efforts in behalf of that ins' • 

important business affair* v. ..di 

•.or pennit him to accept public 

(■'! . ' , ,' .Uv so. The only exceptions he 




^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 231 

made to this rule were in favor of the solicitorship of Lawrence 
township, Mercer county, and membership in the Trenton School 
Board. From an educational point of view, Mr. Hamill was partic- 
ularly fitted to serve in the last mentioned office, because of his prac- 
tical experience in work of that class. For a period of six years he 
had been the vice-principal of the high school of Lawrenceville, and, 
under his father, who was the head of the faculty at that time, he 
filled several professorships there. 

Mr. Hamill married, 1879, Elizabeth Drinker, daughter of the 
late Hon. Barker and Elizabeth (Stryker) Gummere, of Trenton, 
New Jersey. They had several children, of whom there are now 
living: Barker, Hugo and Mathilde. Mr. Hamill was a member 
and elder of the Old First Presbyterian Church of Trenton, and he 
and his wile were staunch and liberal supporters of all the charitable 
projects undertaken in the city of Trenton. Public-spirited to a de- 
gree, it was in a large measure owing to his personal efforts, as a 
member of the committee appointed for the purpose, that the appro- 
priate Battle Monument, which is now such an ornament to the city, 
was secured and dedicated with such impressive ceremonies. His 
enormous business interests naturally claimed the greater part of his 
time, yet Mr. Hamill always managed to find time to get through a 
vast amount of reading of all kinds, and no man was better informed 
upon current subjects, as well as general literature, both ancient and 
modern, than Mr. Hamill. 



5^ 



JOSEPH FULFORD FOLSOM 



JOSEPH FULFORD FOLSOM, Presbyterian clergyman and 
a man of many-sided ability and activity, is a direct descendant 
of the Puritan, John Folsom, ot Hingham, England, who came with 
his family to America on the ship "Diligent," landing at Boston, 
August lo, 1638. He is also a direct descendant of Major John 
Pulford, who was in command of the defences at Annapolis, Mary- 
land, during the Revolutionary War. He is the pastor of the Third 
Presbyterian Church, South, of Newark. 

Mr. Folsom was born in Bioomfield, Essex county, New Jersey, 
and throughout his minority lived in his native town, where he re- 
ceived his common school education. After leaving high school he 
was engaged in office work in the city of New York for a few years. 
A part of 1881; was spent in Fargo, Dakota, where he had secured a 
position in the real estate office of a distant kinsman. He then took 
up a course of theological study under the preceptorship of his pastor. 
Rev. Henr\' W. Ballantine, D. D., of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Bioomfield, later entering the Union Theological Seminary in 
New York City, from which he was graduated in 1892. He was 
ordained and installed as pastor of the Pound Ridge Presbyterian 
Church, Westchester county, New York, June 21, 1892, and served 
in this pastorate for a period of three years. His next charge was 
the Knox Presbyterian Church of Kearny, Hudson county. New Jer- 
sev, where he was installed, July 8, 1895, and where he remained 
until his removal by the Presbytery of Newark to Newark, Essex 
county. New Jersey, in order to take ministerial charge of an un- 
organized field in the Clinton Hill section of the city. Here he com- 
menced his duties, November 21, 1904, in a commodious chapel 
previously erected by the committee of Presbyterial church extension, 
and on February 15, 1906, the congregation was organized as the 
Clinton Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Folsom was unani- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 233 

moiisly elected the first pastor. In 1912, with a membership of over 
In e liuniired, this church entered into an agreement whereby it was 
merged with the Third Presbyterian Church of Newark, and became 
the Collegiate Third Church, South. Under the agreement the 
chapel was enlarged for Sunday school and social work, and a hand- 
some new churcli edifice exclusively for religious senices was erected. 
In iSq7 Mr. Folsoin was moderator of the Presbytery of Newark. 

In 1895 .Mr. Folsom was elected the first chaplain-general of 
the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, and served two 
years; being reelected to the same office in 1907, he served another 
two years. He is also a member of the New Jersey Society of the Sons 
of the American Revolution. In 1904 he was elected recording secre- 
tary of the New Jersey Historical Society, which office he is still hold- 
ing at the present (19 13) time. In 1909 he was appointed librarian 
of this society, and when the office was made elective in 19 i 2, he was 
chosen to fill it. P'or a number of years he has been greatly interested 
in the State and local history of New Jersey. I le made original re- 
searches for material on the folk lore of the State, and wrote a num- 
ber of articles on witchcraft, omens, magic and illusions. He was 
a pioneer in writing articles on old houses and their traditions. He 
has written many articles on colonial history, biography and bibli- 
ography. 

Mr. Folsom called general attention to the ser\'ices of Daniel 
Bray and other New Jersey patriots who, in 1776, at great peril and 
discomfort to themselves, brought down the Delaware the boats 
needed for Washington's attack on Trenton, and wrote the "Ballad 
of Daniel Bray." This poem, printed in the "Patriotic Poems of New 
Jersey," compiled by W. C. Armstrong, was also published as a 
broadside by the Free Public Library of Newark, and is a favorite 
piece for school declamation. In connection with his work for the 
New Jersey Historical Society, Mr. Folsom conducts a tlepartment 
on historical matters in the "Newark Evening News," familiarly 
known as the column by the "Lorist." He is a member and director 
of the Carteret Book Club, and has been engaged to write a history 



234 L5IOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

of Philip Carteret, the first Governor of New Jersey, to be published 
by the club. He is also engaged in writing a second volume of the 
history of the Washington Association of New Jersey. 

In the poetical field, Mr. Folsom has also done occasional work, 
his contributions having appeared in the "Independent" and other 
publications, but more frequently in the daily press. Poems suitable 
to special occasions ha\'e frequently come from his pen. At the un- 
\eiling of the equestrian statue of Washington at Newark, 19 12, he 
read "The Horseman Washington," which he had composed for this 
event. His poem on the Lincoln statue appears in the volume en- 
titled "The Newark Lincoln," compiled by John Cotton Dana. 

In 191 2 Mr. Folsom edited the local history entitled "Bloom- 
field, Old and New," published in connection with the celebration 
of the centennial of the incorporation of Bloomfield, his native town. 
He is the author of the first three chapters of the book. Mr. Folsom 
issued a pamphlet in 19 13 called "New Jersey's part in the Revolu- 
tion," which contains a paper previously read on several occasions, 
notably at the Old Barracks, Trenton, and printed in the "Proceed- 
ings of the New Jersey Historical Society." He is also the author of 
the chapter on the history of the churches in the "Histor>' of New- 
ark," edited by Frank J. Urquhart. Among the fraternities of which 
he Is a member are the Delta Upsilon, the Masonic and the Knights 
of Pythias. 

Mr. Folsom married, 1892, Isabel Markham Kirk. They have 
had three children: Joseph Kirk (Rutgers College, 1913), Isabel, 
and Evelyn Fulford. His worth to the community is highly esti- 
mated and the county numbers him among her most valued citizens. 
Respected in public life, esteemed by his friends, he commands the 
confidence of all with whom he is brought into contact. 







7^/iW^'U-^^l^'. 



EDWAui; « I V, 

nVARD STEV 
sey, is one oi 

;: the lc^dt.•^'^ i!' 



in 1825. I 
to Mount 
son, and ti 



ird Parkinft<; 




etoA^^-^^ 



EDWAHD STEW AKT PARKINSON 



EDWARD STEWART PARKINSON, of Trenton. New Jer- 
sey, is one of those men whose general ability classes them 
among the leaders of the community in which they reside. He is of 
hlnglish descent, the American ancestor of the family being Edward 
Parkinson, who served in the Irish war, and emigrated to America 
in 1825. He settled in Wiikes-Barre, Pennsylvania, later removing 
to Mount Carmel, Illinois, where he died. Robert Parkinson, his 
son, and the father of Edward Stewart Parkinson, came to America 
with his parents and also resided in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and 
in Mount Carmel, Illinois. He held office as the first postmaster of 
Friendsville, Wabash county, Illinois, returned to Mount Carmel at 
rhe expiration of his term of office and engaged in the mercantile 
line of business, in the course of which he was twice forced into bank- 
ruptcy, and each time paid his creditors in full. The authority on 
titles in Wabash county, Illinois, once said of him: "Robert Parkin- 
son handled more real estate than any other man in Wabash county, 
and I have failed to find one instance where any of his dealings was 
not upright and square. His name was never connected with any 
transaction In which there was any fraud." He married Frances 
Jane, daughter of Abraham and Hannah (Stewart) Russell. Ed- 
ward Stewart Parkinson Is of the ninth generation of his family In 
this country in the maternal line, the American progenitor having 
been Robert Rami, who died in 1639 or 1640. Nathaniel Rand, 
his son, was a sergeant freeman in 1668, selectman In i6qo, and was 
probably the Nathaniel Rand who partlclpatetl In King Philip's War 
under Captain John Cutter. Captain Abraham Russell, of the sixth 
generation In descent from Robert Rand, sailed from Nantucket in 
the early part of April, 1798, and nothing was ever heard of the 
\essel or those on her. Eliza Ann Russell, a sister of Frances Jane 
(Russell) Parkinson, married William, a son of P^dward Parkinson, 



236 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the immigrant ancestor, and he was killed at the battle of Shiloh 
(Pittsburgh Landing), .\pril 6. icS62. 

Edward Stewart Parkinson was born at Mount Carmel, Wa- 
bash county, Illinois, October i8, 1861. The common schools of his 
nati\ e State furnished his early education, this was continued in the 
State schools of New Jersey, and supplemented by a course at the 
Capital City Commercial College of Trenton. Thus thoroughly 
equipped for every line of business activity, Mr. Parkinson estab- 
lished himself in the general tire insurance business in Trenton, New 
Jersey, in 1885, ^"'^ has been identified with business of this nature 
since that time. In addition to this he gave a considerable share of 
his time and attention to the public affairs of the community, and in 
1904 was appointed deputy tax receiver for the city of Trenton, a 
position he filled very efficiently for a period of six years. Later he 
was elected to office as comptroller of the city of Trenton, and so 
capable and faithful did he prove himself in this office, that he was 
reelected for another term of three years, which expired January i, 
19 10. His property interests in Mercer county are varied and ex- 
tensive, and his enterprise and influence have a beneficial effect upon 
the residents of the city. 

Mr. Parkinson has ever had the public welfare of the city deeply 
at heart, and never loses an opportunity of furthering its interests in 
every possible manner that lies in his power. Republican in his 
political affiliations, his opinions have carried weight in the councils 
of that party. It was largely through his instrumentality that the 
present Republican Club, on East Hanover street, was purchased, 
and in this manner a permanent home for the organization was 
secured in the city of Trenton. His religious attendance is at the 
Methodist Episcopal church. Warm-hearted and charitably inclined, 
Mr. Parkinson frequently heads the list in matters of public benefac- 
tion, and he is a member of the advisory board of the Union Indus- 
trial Home for Friendless Children in Trenton. In the Masonic fra- 
ternity, he has gone through all the degrees with the exception of the 
thirtv-third, and he is also a member of the Independent Order of 



P.IOGRAPHICAI. EX'CVCLOPEDIA 237 



Ociii Icllows. Mr. Parkinson is a justly popular man in both busi- 
ness and social lite. l*osscssing a remarkable command of language, 
he is a most interesting speaker, and is regarded as an authority in 
many matters. He is a man of hroadminded views, and tolerant in 
his estimation of others. 






EDWARD P. MEANY 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL EDWARD P. MEANY, counsel- 
lor-at-law, Judge Advocate General of New Jersey, was born 
in Louisville, Kentucky, May 13, 1854, the son of Edward A. and 
Maria Lavinia (Shannon) Meany. He is of Irish and English 
ancestry. His father was for a number of years conspicuously identi- 
fied with the jurisprudence of the south, occupying an honored place 
upon the bench and as a member of the bar. Commodore Barry and 
Captain John Meany, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were members 
of his father's family. His maternal grandfather was Henry Gould 
Shannon, who settled in 18 10 at Louisville, Kentucky. 

General Meany was educated in the schools of his native State, 
and at the St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. He was pre- 
pared for the practice of his profession in the most careful and 
thorough manner by his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. 
He was for many years counsel for the American Telephone & Tele- 
graph Company, and held several positions of prominence and con- 
fidence in that corporation and in many of its associate companies. 

General Meany has also acted on many occasions as an officer 
and director of important railway, financial and other corporations. 
In I 8 84, as vice-president of the New Mexico Central & Southern 
Railway Company, he represented that company in Mexico and 
Europe, particularly as a representative of that company in connec- 
tion with its affairs with the government of the Republic of Mexico. 
He is vice-president and director of the Trust Company of New 
Jersey, a director of the Colonial Life Insurance Company of Amer- 
ica, the National Iron Bank of Morristown, New Jersey, the Car- 
teret Trust Company, and the Laurel Coal & Land Company and 
Pond Fork Coal & Land Company of West Virginia. 

He was appointed Judge Advocate General of New Jersey in 
1893, with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1894 he was appointed 



EDWARD P. MJ \!VY 



BRICtADIER-GENERAL EDW/ KANY, coutisel- 

lor-iit-iaw, Judge Advocate Gene; Jersey, was born 

ill Eouisvilie. Kentucky, May 13, 1854, the son of Edward A. ar.i! 
Maria I.avinia (Shannon) Meany. He is of Ir'-'- ^"'' r-.i,rr.!, 
ancestrv- His father was for a number of years co 
lied v,\tl\ the jurisprudence of the south, occupy 
upon '.he bench -.■■n-A as a member of the bar. ' 
Captatn John M-Mny, of Philadelphia. Pe'nnsyi..: 
of hi.; t'aiher's •"_• -v His maternal grandfather 
Sh?, ..■'iun, v.h( . b" 10 at Louisville, Kentucky. 

' icnerai -, educated in the schools of his native State, 

JP'.: >r •:«, St. Lnjis I niversity, St. Louis, Missouri. He was pre- 

ho pr:.. t!! (• of his profession in the most careful and 

ler by tv 1 father, and was admitted to the bar in 1878. 
■ . ny ye;!i-. .Munsel for the American Telephone & Tele- 

g;- 'y, and b'.-.U several positions of prominence and con- 

fiii orporatio-, nid in many of its associate companies. 

Nicany h;us ■.'<(•> acted on many occasions as an officer 
an' j'ortant r^.ilway, financial and other corporations. 

In esident oi the New Mexico Central & Southern 

Ri he reprcented that company in Mexico^ and 

E.j' .'S n rcpi. irritative of that company in connec- 

tio). ' nent of the Republic of Mexico. 

He ,, J!;.'... - t the Trust Company of New 

Jersey, , olonial Lift Insurance Company of Amer- 

ica, the ■' of MorristMwn, New Jersey, th- '"-- 

teret Tr ■ Laurel vial & Land Cornp.^ 

Pond F> .V of West Virginia. 

He -ocate Geiit^'^af* of New ' 

1897, with thi ... ~ . leral. In 




C^^ri^^^^^^^^Ky 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 239 

one ot the Palisiules Commissioners of the State of New Jersey, and 
has heen a trustee and treasurer of the Newark Free Public Library. 
General Mcany is a Democrat in politics. He was a delegate from 
New Jersey to the National Democratic Conventions of 1896 and 
iqoo, and at both con\entions he earnestlv supporteil the principles 
advocated by the Old-Line Democracy, and vigorously protested 
against the abandonment by the party of those principles. 

He married Miss Rosalie Behr, daughter of Peter Behr, Lsq., 
of St. Louis, Missouri, and has one child now living, his son. Shan- 
non Lord .Meanv. 



GUSTAV EDWARD KISSEL 



GUSTAV EDWARD KISSEL, a prominent resident of Morris 
county, New Jersey, was a noteworthy figure in the business 
interests of the community. A man of commanding personality, he 
would have made his mark, in any line of activity in which he chose 
to engage, and he was a signal example of the important influence 
one man of strong character and magnetic power may wield over the 
more average men of the time. His was a compelling force and few 
who knew him were able to resist the potency and charm of his 
nature. 

Born in New York City, September 30, 1854, Mr. Kissel was, 
on his father's side of German extraction, his father having been a 
native of Germany and a merchant of marked force and strong per- 
sonality. Gustav Hermann Kissel had married Charlotte Stimson, 
of Dedham, Massachusetts, a member of an old New England fam- 
ily in whose veins ran with the intense Puritanic blood that traditional 
avidity for the best in ideals, in conduct, and in the whole output of 
life which has made what Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes called the 
"Brahmin" caste of America. These two strong influences combined 
to make of the young Gustav E. Kissel an unusually forceful man. 
His father's Teutonic stamina and staying power with that thorough- 
ness and system for which it is noted throughout Europe united with 
his mother's New England ideality, exactness, and buoyant elasticity 
f>f nature. His parents were living at the time of the boy's birth on 
Clinton Place, in that old aristocratic portion of New York City, the 
last stronghold of that old regime of patrician exclusiveness which 
New York has in the last few decades cast away in exchange for the 
noisy cares of a metropolitan city. Here the young boy spent his 
early days and gained its best influences from a neighborhood where 
families still cherished amid the charm of a cultured and comfortable 
manner of life the old ,'\merican ideals of the early republic. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 241 

1 he first school to which (justav E. Kissel was sent was that of 
Professor Charliers, a cultivated man and a ripe scholar of that type 
of education which trained a man to be at once a scholar and a gentle- 
man. He was a man of much intiuence with boys and it is without 
question that he made a lasting impression upon the susceptible mind 
of the young boy whose after life showed such a fastidious prefer- 
ence for personal dignity and the most scrupulous honor. He next 
went to the private school of J. H. Morse, also of New York City, 
and began the development of those unmistakable signs of ambition 
and energy that bespoke the future man. His parents were anxious 
that his education should not savor of provincialit} , but should ha\e 
all the breadth that can only be attained by "changing the skies and 
the manners." They believed with Shakespeare that "home-keeping 
youths have e\er homely wits." He was, therefore, sent to l^urope, 
going first to Lausanne, in Switzerland, and continuing his studies 
at the lycee for which the town is so well known. Here he soon be- 
came thoroughly equipped with a mastery of the French language, 
fortunate in his gaining it at so early an age that it came as a natural 
acquisition, and not as the result of laborious study and an analysis 
of grammar. Another important advantage of continuing his school 
studies in a foreign country is the fresh eye he gained upon many 
ideas and concepts that have become custom-worn and stale. He 
sees the new country and his own from a fresh point of view and 
learns to compare, select, and revise to the great benefit of his critical 
judgment and often to the great strengthening of his patriotism, the 
latter result often existing side by side with an abundant respect for 
the institutions of the foreign country. His preparatory work at 
Lausanne at an end he went to Heidelberg, and gained an insight into 
those treasures of Ciermanic philosophy, science, and literature which 
are the goal of the ambitious young intellectual throughout F.urope 
and America. 

Upon his return to the United States Mr. Kissel decided to 
enter upon a business career and looked about for the work he pre- 

NC— IB 



242 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ferred to devote himself to. In 1883 he became a partner in the 
banking firm of Kessler & Company, changing it from a wholesale 
dry goods business, a branch of Kessler & Co., of Manchester, 
England, which had been opened by his father, Gustav Hermann 
Kessler, in New York, during the 50's. The enterprise prospered 
under his direction, but in 1897 he was obliged through ill health 
to withdraw from the firm. A year later he went abroad with his 
family. Upon his return from Europe he opened a private office and 
became interested in various enterprises. Later he entered into a 
partnership with his nephew in the firm of Kinnicut & Potter. In 
1905 he founded a new firm and became full partner, under the 
name of Kissel, Kinnicut & Company, and was its head when he 
died, in 191 i. He was a member of the board of the United 
States Mortgage & Trust Company and of the Morristown Trust 
Company. 

In his political views Mr. Kissel held with the Republican party, 
never caring, however, to hold office of any kind. He was a member 
of the Unitarian church. He belonged to the Century, the Racket, 
the New York Yacht, the Union, and the Knickerbocker clubs of 
New York, and was also a member of the Morris County Golf Club 
of New Jersey. 

He resided the greater part of his life in New York City and 
on Staten Island, traveling abroad for months at a time and renew- 
ing the old friendships he had made as a youth in Europe. In the 
autumn of 1887 he bought a handsome place near Morristown, New 
Jersey and became extremely interested in its development making 
extensive improvements and setting out many trees and shurbs for the 
adornment of the grounds. He showed in this hitherto latent taste 
for landscape gardening that strongly marked artistic bias which had 
been evidenced by other cultivated tastes. 

He was, indeed, a man of the finest instincts and tastes in all 
directions and he knew and enjoyed the best books, finding in them 
a pleasure that was sincere and unalloyed. His enjoyment of music 
was keen and unaffected, and one which in his student days had added 



niOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 243 

greatly to the pleasure he derived from his stay in Germany. In 
addition to these cidtivated tastes, he was a man with a passionate love 
for the open, deriving a satisfaction and an invigoration from the 
pursuit of out-of-door sports that was in a measure a key to the man's 
character. .A man of tine instincts, and highly cultivated mind he 
had more than the usual interest of an intelligent man in science, and 
was a trustee of the Museum of Natural History, serving also in 
that capacity the Children's Aid Society, the Blind Institute and the 
.'\nierican Geographical Society. His interest in and alliance with 
these organizations and institutions show the high character of his 
tastes and his impulses. They show the lighter side of a character of 
rigorous integrity of conduct and principle, determining factors that 
placed him in the front rank of his associates in business. The death 
of such a man leaves a wide gap in any community. 

.Mr. Kissel married, in New York City, December 9, 1884, 
Caroline, daughter of William Knapp and Fmilie (Vanderbilt) 
Thorn. Their children were: William I'horn, born December 29, 
1885; E. Dorothy, born January 29, 1887; Jeannette Thorn, born 
August 30, 1889: and Louise Baring, born April 10, 1892. 



CHARLES BRADLEY 



IF those who claiin that fortune has favored certain individuals 
above others will but investigate the cause of success and 
failure, it will be found that the former is largely due to the 
improvement of opportunity, the latter to the neglect of it. For- 
tunate environments encompass nearly every man at some stage of 
his career, but the strong man and the successful man is he who 
realizes that the proper moment has come, that the present and not 
the future holds his opportunity. The man who makes use of the 
Now and not the To Be is the one who passes on the highway of life 
others who started out ahead of him, and reaches the goal of pros- 
perity in advance of them. It is this quality in Charles Bradley that 
has made him a leader in the business world and won him an enviable 
name in connection with large financial interests in New Jersey, espe- 
cially in the vicinity of Newark, which place has long represented 
his home. 

The Bradley family is an old and honored one in American his- 
tory and the ancestry is traced to Francis Bradley, who settled in 
Fairfield, Connecticut, in 1660, and who had previously lived in 
Brandford, near New Haven, Connecticut. He married Ruth Bar- 
low and their eldest child was John Bradley, who had a son Joseph 
Bradley I., great-great-great-grandfather of Charles Bradley, of 
this sketch. Joseph Bradley I. was born in the fall of 1701 and he 
had a son Joseph Bradley II., who lived in Berne, county of Albany, 
New York, where occurred the birth of Joseph Bradley III., whose 
son Philo (born March 23, 1795) was the grandfather of Charles 
Bradley. Philo Bradley married Miss Mercy Gardiner when both 
were seventeen years of age and their eldest son was Joseph P. Brad- 
lev, who became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

Hon. Joseph P. Bradley was born March 14. 1813, at Berne, 



CHARLES BB ^ 



th( 



y those who claim that fort«rte i 

above others will but inve«ig 
'Allure, it will be found that the 
T.provemeii* o* opportunity, the ia 
iiunate erivirnnmcnts encompass ne^rl -.i 

Ms career, but the Strong man ancl the siicccssiu: man is ue vv^k, 
r^Jizes that the pro.,-cr moment ha^come, ithat riv pre^^cnt and not 
,;v' future holds h.s c^portunity. The maW who «akes u'c of the 
' r'.rt the I o Be is the one wl^o passb on th ' highw..-. ■ .ire 
•itarted out ahead of him) and rltaches he gf 

e of them, h is-this (Walityfin Chirles Pk .... ;..-■.- 
!„af]er .n <M- V>usiness ^Vorld iind wbi him an enviable 

(sew Jersey, espe- 
long represented 

in American his- 

Francis Bradley, who settled in 

>nJ \Vho had pj-eviouslv livrd 'n 



Bradley. l*\v~>' 
were seventeen 
ley, >yho becai 
United States. 
Hon. Jos< 



n.mcia!\inte?«!sts in " 
k, whi4h plate has 

!ti and honprlpd ont 



■ectiicut. 



%ic married 
wholhad a 
Chiles B 
• faill of 1701 ..... ..- 

le, jcounty of Albany, 
; Bradley III., whose 
mcilfather of Charles 
Gardiner ^' " 
i' IS Josei 





^^^-£^/ (^ yy^r<^^/^^ 



niOGRAPillCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 245 



Albany county, New York. 1 le passed his boyhood and youth on the 
old paternal homestead and obtained his preliminary eiiucational 
training in the neij^hboriny; district schools. By teaching he man- 
aged to earn a little money and he immediately began to prepare for 
entering Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in which 
he was graduated as a member of the famous class of 1836. For a 
short time after completing his collegiate course he was principal of 
the Millstone, New Jersey, .\cademy and then, on the persuasion of 
two of his class-mates, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen and Cortlandt 
Parker, he came to Newark, New Jersey, and began the study of law 
in the office of Archer (iiHord. About this time hi was appointed 
inspector of customs and the salary of this office was sufficient to de- 
fray his expenses until he was admitted to the bar, in November. 
1839. His success was certain from the beginning and before many 
years had passed he became known as one of the ablest lawyers in 
New Jersey, figuring in many important litigations in both the State 
and I'ederal courts, l-'.arly in the year 1870 he was nominated, by 
President Grant, to till a vacancy then existing on the bench of the 
Supreme Court of the I'nitcd States and his nomination was con- 
firmed by the Senate March 21, i 870. Considerable study and much 
travel, combined with unusual knowledge along legal lines, soon 
gained him recognition from his associates as their peer. He imme- 
diately established the family home in Washington and in due time 
began to figure prominently in the social affairs of the Capitol City. 
He served as Associate Justice through five administrations — Grant, 
Hayes, Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison — and attended faithfully to 
the duties of his office until a short time prior to his demise, which 
occurred January 22, 1892, aged nearly seventy-nine years. 

October 23, 1844, Justice Bradley was united in marriage to 
Miss .Mary Hornblowcr, of Newark, youngest daughter of Chief 
Justice Hornblower. Cbildrin: Mary Burnet, born September 26, 
1845, married, February 16, 1870, Henry V. Butler; Caroline, born 
November 2, 1847, married, June 29, 1893, Joseph C. Hornblower; 
Joseph Hornblower. born October 6, 1849, died September 12, 



246 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

1854; Harriet, born October 4, 185 i, died April 26, 1856; William 
H., born September 13, 1853, married, November 17, 1880, Eliza 
McCormick Cameron, he is deceased; Charles, the subject of this 
sketch; and Joseph Richard, born June 28, 1862, died February 7, 
1^64. 

To return to Charles Bradley, sixth in order of birth of the 
seven children born to Justice and Mrs. Bradley, his nativity occurred 
at Newark, New Jersey, August 31, 1857. As a boy he attended 
Mr. Grant's Private School, the Newark Academy and Rutgers Pre- 
paratory School. He was graduated in Rutgers College, his father's 
alma mater, as a member of the class of 1876, and subsequently ob- 
tained a law degree in the Columbian Law School, at Washington, 
D. C. In 1878 he was employed in the Drawback Division of the 
New York Custom House and from 1879 until 1883 he was with 
the H. V. Butler Jr. & Company, paper manufacturers in New York 
City. In the latter year he became associated with P. Ballantine & 
Sons, Brewers, at Newark, New Jersey, as secretary and manager, 
which offices he filled until 1905, when he was elected vice-president 
and treasurer, retaining the latter incumbencies until the present time. 
He is interested financially and officially in numerous other important 
business enterprises in New Jersey, being vice-president and treasurer 
of the following concerns: The Saranac Realty Company, the Alli- 
ance Investment Company, and the Passaic Transportation Com- 
pany. He is a director of the Newark Board of Trade, is a trustee of 
the New Jersey Brewers Association, is trustee of the New York 
Brewers Board of Trade, is vice-president and trustee of the Newark 
Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, is vice-president and trustee of the 
New Jersey Historical Society, and is treasurer and trustee of the 
Newark Museum Association and director of the Murphy Varnish 
Company. In 1892 he was a director of the Newark City National 
Bank, from 1900 to 1901 was president of the Rutgers College 
Alumni Association, and in 191 1- 12 was president of the Rutgers 
Club of Newark, New Jersey. In 19 10 elected life trustee of Rut- 
gers College, but declined to serve. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 247 

His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and 
while he has been frequently urged to run for public offices he has per- 
sistently refused to accept any other than honorary offices. For nine 
years he served as State director of the United New Jersey Railroad 
& Canal Company and in i8q6 he was a delegate to the Republican 
National Convention. He is a member of the Delta Phi College fra- 
ternity and is a valued and appreciated member of the following 
clubs: Essex Club, Morris County Ciolf Club, the Morristown 
Club, the Whippany River Club, the Downtown Association in New 
York, the University Club in New York, and I he Somerset Hills 
County Club. He and his family are devout members of the Dutch 
Reformed Church and to its good works are liberal contributors of 
their time and means. Mr. Bradley is held in high esteem by his 
fellow citizens and is everywhere honored and admired for his fair 
and straightforward career. He is an unusually gifted business man, 
has done a great deal of most creditable genealogical and historical 
work and is active in all matters tending to improve the general wel- 
fare of his home community. 

April 12, 1882, at Newark, Mr. Bradley married Julie E. Bal- 
lantlne, a daughter of Robert F. and Anne E. Ballantlne. This 
union has been prolific of four children, whose names and respective 
tiates of birth arc here entered: Charles Burnet, born April 15, 
1S83; Robert Ballantlne, December 20, 1886; Anne Brown, October 
5, 1894; anti Francis Barlow, July 2, 1897. 



GEORGE LA MONTE 



GEORGE, son of Thomas W. and Elizabeth Maria (Payne) 
La Monte, was born August 5, 1834, in Charlotteville, Scho- 
harie county. New York. He received his education in the pubUc 
schools and New York Conference Seminary at Charlotteville and 
at Union College, Schenectady, New York, from which institution 
he was graduated with the degrees of B. A. and M. A. After his 
graduation he taught in Virginia and was president of Farmville and 
Danville Female colleges until 1865. He is now a manufacturer of 
paper and is the inventor of National Safety Paper for the preven- 
tion of fraudulent alteration of checks, drafts, etc. This paper is 
largely used by banks, in this and foreign countries, and for money 
orders. Mr. La Monte has been president of the First National 
Bank of Bound Brook since its organization in 1888. In politics he 
was a Democrat, but later joined the Prohibition party and was a 
leader in the early days of that party in New Jersey, being candidate 
for go\ernor. He is a Son of the American Revolution and the 
founder of the Washington Camp Ground Association; to this asso- 
ciation he gave the land at Middlebrook Heights, where the flag was 
first given to the continental army. He is a member of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church of Bound Brook. 

Mr. La Monte married, June 28, 1858, at Romney, Hampshire 
county, West Virginia, Rebecca Thweatt, daughter of John and Re- 
becca Thweatt (Mason) Kerr. Children of Mr. and Mrs. La 
Monte are: i. Mary (Mrs. Ellis Dunn Thompson). 2. Caroline B. 
3. George Mason. 4. Robert Rives. 

Mr. La Monte is a man much interested in all good works, one 
whose philanthropy is so broad that no good cause appeals to him 
in vain, and he is also interested in the general affairs of the world 
and especially in those of his own State and city. 




A 



.JV> 


lii - v'ij;, 


:■ ' •'-!<. 


He rec 


3VV' 1 <_>rk 




"oe, Sch< 





at 

hf 

gn .. 

Dr. >5. He is now 

pa, M.nal Safety Pai • 

tit,- V, ; checks, drafts, etc. I 

lar :h;^ aiuJ foreign countries, ar. 

or has been president of the i 

Bn *; organization in 1888. in ^ 

w:i Hied the Prohibition party an 

lea ' .i:-> - Xc'\ TiMsey, being candiuy;'. 

fiK -.1; K evolution and the 

f. ssociation ; to this asso- 

.hts, where the flag was 
member of the Meth- 

28, 1858, at Romney, Hampshire 
•iweatt, daughter of John and Re- 
Children of Mr. and Mrs. La 
^' -V 1. Caroline B. 

' 1 111 all gtX' ' 
wl. )J cause ap; 

in vait >tcd ill Li-.c guieral affairs of :; 

and esp ^^'wn State and city. 




^4^L^. ^ 



a. 



HEXIIY M 



I I XRY M. NKVi, o 

Ml Ml bar of New Jersey. 
/ [841, son of Ju" 

r his early eJiu. 
the i reeholc! Ac.iiJemy aiiu 
in i8>8. In rhu fc)iiowing 



Michli.: 


an. v.l 


v. '\ he took a ; 




anJ 


in 


the sr. 


f iSfii cii 




A. . 


AlR. 


;r. 








W 


'h- ■ 


1 .Var began 


priv 


ate 




K, First 


Ne 


C 






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th. 










te 










fo- 










wl, 




•J served until the \\ 




<:-.- 




■ take 


position in a re 








■f this regiment was ;■' 








.ate 


in March, • - 








',alr>' 


, where h ■ 





HENRY M. NEVIUS 



HKNKV M. NEVIUS, deceased, who was a bright light at the 
bar of New Jersey, was born at Freehold, New Jersey, Janu- 
ary 30, 1 84 1, son of James S. and I lannah ( Bowne) Nevius. 

For his early education he was sent to the public schools and to 
the Freehold Academy and graduated from the Freehold Institute 
in 1858. In the following year, 1859. he went to Grand Rapids, 
Michigan, where he took a post-graduate course in the high school, 
and in the spring of 1861 entered the law office of General Russell 
A. Alger. 

When the Civil War began he enlisted, August 12, 1861, as 
pri\ate in Company K, First New York (Lincoln) Cavalry, under 
Colonel MacReynolds. The regiment was assigned to the Army of 
the Potomac, and Mr. Nevius, holding the rank of regimental quar- 
termaster-sergeant, resigned December 31, 1S62, being promoted 
for gallantry to second lieutenant, Sexenth Michigan Cavalry, one of 
the four regiments, namely, the Urst, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh, 
which comprised the brigade under General George A. Custer, under 
whom he served until the winter of 1863-64, when he resigned in 
order to take position in a regiment then forming at Trenton. The 
raising of this regiment was abandoned and Mr. Nevius then enlisted 
as a private in March, 1864, in Company E, Twenty-fifth New 
York Cavalry, where his promotion was rapid, and upon the capture 
of Imboden with nearly one hundred of Mosby's men he was pro- 
moted to first lieutenant, and as such, July i i, 1864, he commanded 
his company in front of Fort Stevens, about five miles from Wash- 
ington, as the centre of a small band who resisted the attack of Gen- 
eral Early upon the cit>' and led the charge which forced the enemy 
back. His left arm was shattered by a bullet, but he held his men 
until the crisis was passed and then fell to the ground. That night 
the President made him a major. In May, i86<;, he was discharged, 



250 15IOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

and in the following year was appointed Deputy Collector of Inter- 
nal Revenue for Monmouth county, New Jersey. 

After this he opened an office in Marlborough as an insurance 
agent, which he continued until 1868, when he entered the law office 
of General Charles Haight, with whom he remained until he was 
admitted to the New Jersey Bar as an attorney in Febi-uary, 1873, 
and as counsellor in 1876. Between these two latter dates he had 
his office in P'reehold, but shortly before being made counsellor he 
went to Red Bank, where he formed a co-partnership with the Hon. 
John S. Applegate. After four years he set up in his profession for 
himself and continued so until 1888, when he entered into partner- 
ship with Edmund Wilson, a former student of his, and this partner- 
ship continued until 1896, when he was appointed Judge of the Cir- 
cuit Court by Governor Griggs, a position which he held for seven 
years with the approval and admiration of the entire bar of the State. 
He is the second "Judge Nevius" to sit upon the bench in New Jer- 
sey, and Whitehead says of him : "His career on the bench has made 
it manifest that he is a lover of justice. His willingness to preside 
continuously, his uniform courtesy to the bar, his ability to grasp and 
state tersely the legal principles involved, have combined to make his 
court a popular arena for litigation." In 1904 he became Prosecutor 
of the Pleas for Monmouth county, and served as such until October, 
1908. when he resigned in order to accept his election as commander- 
in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. A year later, when his 
official term as commander-in-chief expired, he resumed his private 
practice as a counsellor-at-law, and a special master and examiner of 
cfiancery. 

Judge Nevius was always a Republican, and from 1880 until 
I 890 he was being continually urged to accept nominations both to 
the Assembly and the Senate and also to go on the stump for his 
party. In 1887 he was unanimously nominated for the Senate, and 
after declining the nomination three times he was forced to accept, 
and in a strongly Democratic county, after an exciting canvass, in 
which he made effective addresses, he was elected by a majority of 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 251 

lour hundred on the Republican ticket, the county going twenty-five 
hundred Democratic the previous year, and his own township giving 
hi))i eight hundred majority. In 1889 his name was proposed as a 
candidate for Governor, but he retained his senatorship, and when he 
retired in 1890 it was as president of the Senate. It was during his 
last session that he investigated the Hudson county frauds which 
resulted in the sending of sixty-eight men to the State prison. He 
also did most efficient work speaking throughout the State in behalf 
of tieneral Harrison in both of his campaigns, and in that of 1884 
.Mr. Xe\ ius made as many as sixty speeches. 

In 1S84 he was elected commander of the Department of New 
Jersey. Cirand Army of the Republic, and reelected in 1885, and he 
organized Arrowsmith Post, Xo. 61, of which he was commander 
until 1885. He always took a deep interest in the Grand Army, and 
attended all the meetings of that order. After being chosen by the 
Toledo meeting in 1908 as commander-in-chief, he devoted almost 
the whole of his time to the Grand Army, and made the enviable 
reconl of traveling in one year nearly forty thousand miles on inspec- 
tions. He died January 28, 191 i. He married, December 27, 
1871, Matilda, bom October i. 1846, daughter of William H. and 
(iertrude (Schanck) Herbert. 



*^#i%C-5 



GEORGE F. CLRRIE 



THE LIFK of George K. Curric is a noble illustration of 
what independence, self- faith and persistency can accom- 
plish in America. He is a self-made man in the most significant sense 
of the word for no one helped him in a financial way and he is self- 
educated. As a young man he was strong, vigorous and self-reliant. 
He trusted in his own ability and did things single-handed and alone. 
Today he stands supreme as a successful business man and a loyal 
and public-spirited citizen. Most of his attention has been devoted 
to the hardware and stove business, but since 1886 he has also been 
interested in banking enterprises. He has been a resident of At- 
lantic City since 186S. 

George F. Currie was born March 11, 1835, in Dubs, France, 
and there was reared to maturity and educated. In 1851 he immi- 
grated to the United States, landing in New York City, where he 
sojourned for a short time and whence he removed to Philadelphia. 
Subsequently he lived in Delaware for a time and during the panic 
of 1857 located at Millville, New Jersey, where he engaged in the 
hardware and stove business, later removing to Absecon. At the 
time of the inception of the Civil War he gave proof of his intrinsic 
loyalty to the land of his adoption by enlisting as a soldier in the 
Union army. He participated in a number of important battles 
marking the progress of the war and received his honorable dis- 
charge in 1865. In 1868 Mr. Currie came to Atlantic City and 
erected a store building at No. 1 2 1 6- 1 8 Atlantic avenue, there engag- 
ing in the stove and hardware business. He prospered in his business 
ventures and in due time became one of the essentially representative 
citizens of Atlantic county. In 1881 a meeting was held in his store 
and the Atlantic City National Bank was organized. Five years 
later the Second National Bank was incorporated and of this sub- 
stantial institution Mr. Currie has since been president. Later when 



C^^., 7? ^L 



LAy^p\A.JL 



^iEOIK.K 



p!:;-.h 



Ht 



«l E of George K. C 

■■■ independence, self'-L. 
^:^ erica. He is a self-made mu' 
ir<i for no one helped him in .. 
i As a young man he was strt- 
.!; J in his own ability and did tii . . 
r-.r. stands supreme as a successlui bti- 
^ :!m ' ' -n. Most of hisattenu.')! 
iL- business, but since i88<. 
irerprises. 



vUrrie 

r-ared r 



I).. I'-'. .:.-' 

erect. •.; 

ing ir. in-,, ■'i- 
ventiitcj .'M 
citizens oi Hi 
and the "','•:' 
later the S.;- 
stantial inst'n. 



as born March ii, ■ '.■'rancc, 

maturity and educnt 'mmi- 

-d Sr.ites, land' 'ic 

rt time and wh 
d in Delaware c 

.\(jllvl!le, New .;-- -,,.. -•>. ..- ..,^-.,. .. ^ 

;>usiness, later removing to Absccon. At thf 

the Civil W - "^ -Me proof of his intrinsic 

■ s adoptio ing as a soldier in the 

• ipated in a nuiu:>er of important battles 

■ the war and received his honorable dis- 

■'fr. Cuirie came to Atlantic City and 

I2i6-i8 Atlantic avenue, there engag- 

Husiness. He prospc business 

■1- one of the essenti:i _ ■';tat"v<. 

s: I a meeting was held in hi 

■ ','ik was organired. Fivr 

■ .. .orpoi-ateJ and o: 
. •.«,,- been president. 




4;^ -^ -^L 



LA.^t^\AJL 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 253 



the I rust Company connected with the bank was started Mr. Currie 
hecame a hea\\' stockholder in that enterprise and since 1894 he has 
been its president. Mr. Currie is a man of unusual executive ability 
and his splenditi success in life is the more gratifying to contemplate 
inasmuch as it is the direct result of his own well applied efforts. 

In his political convictions Mr. Currie is aligned as an unswer\-- 
ing supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican 
party stands sponsor. He has served on the city council for several 
terms and for se\ entcen years was a member of the Board of Chosen 
Freeholders. In the time-honored Masonic order he is a member of 
Absecon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, which he helped organ- 
ize and of which he was tirst junior warden. 1 le is connected with 
the American Star Lodge, \o. 148, Independent ( )rder of Odd 
I'ellows, of which he was tirst noble grand. 

In 1859 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Currie to Miss 
.Mathilda D. Haley, of Haleyvilie, Cumberland county. New Jersey. 
To this union were born four children — two sons and two daughters. 



WILLIAM T. A. STKANGE 



THIS FAMILY, which held a prominent position in the indus- 
trial world of America, was English in origin and came to 
this country early in the nineteenth century. 

William Thomas Albert Strange, the subject of this narrative, 
son of Albert Bruton and Elizabeth (Fleet) Strange, was born 
March i, 1838, in Chichester, England, and died January 16, 1899, 
in New York City, where he had made his home for several years 
after giving up his residence in Paterson. As a youth, William 
Strange received a sound and thorough education in America, supple- 
menting it by further studies in France and Germany. His first 
acquaintance with business affairs was in the position of clerk in the 
employment of Naylor & Company, merchants, on John street. New 
York. A few years later he became identified with the firm of 
Strange & Brother, wholesale silk importers and dealers. To under- 
stand the prominent position held by William Strange in the trade of 
which he was one of its pioneers and leading men, it is well to give a 
short sketch of the beginning and growth of the firm with which he 
was allied from early years: 

The wholesale house of Strange 1*1: Brother was started in 1838, at 
the corner of William and Beaver streets, New York, and up to 1908 
was located at No. 96-98 Prince street, to which premises it removed from 
those it formerly occupied at Park Place, the corner of Broadway and 
Reade street. Walker street, and No. 423 Broome street, respectively. 
In the incipient stages, the proprietors of th.e house were E. B. and .Mbcrt 
B. Strange, the latter the father of William Strange. After thirty years 
of mercantile experience as silk importers and dealers, the Stranges 
became manufacturers of silks, convinced that they could successfully 
produce in this country- the class of goods which they had been importing. 
Their first factory started in 1863, occupied a site in Williamsburg. Five 
years later, the works were transferred to Paterson, New Jersey, and 
there conducted under the name of William Strange & Co., and the man- 
agement of William Strange. .\t the death of A. B. Strange, in 1S87, 



WILLIAM T. 



•< -:E 



THIS FANULY, which held a pr. 
trial world of America, was Fr 
this country eariy in the nineteenth cent- 

Wlliia;^^ I'homas Albert Strange, : 
son <'■'' ^" . Bruton and Elizabeth 
M. ■, in Chichester, England, 
in "vity, where he had made ... 
after K'' '■■..': '^P his residence in Paterson. 
St*- ■ • • " .sound and thorough educatiu-i ;i -, 
mp lier studies ia France and Germai 
ac • isiness affairs was ir. 
ei= " vjor & Company, me 
Yi '-s later he became idcr.. 
Sti -rholesaje silk, importer*^. : 
St;*' itiun held by Wi" 
\vh. '■ ' icers and lea. 
sh'. and growth of 

wair .- , 



the indus- 
ame to 



c!ci <- 
street, 



\CNV 



ade of 

give a 

th which he 



Change & Brother was started in 1838, at 
iver streets, New York, and up to 1908 
strpet, to which premises it removed from 
'.nrk Place, the corner of Broadway and 
'i No, 423 Broome street, respectively. 
■; of tlie house were E. B. and Albert 
^'illiam Strange. After thirty years 
'.-iorters and dealers, the S'- '"p- 
'v.cced that they could sucv 
': which they had been inn 
' .T site in Williamsbur 
Paterson, New T••^ 



Strange. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 255 



E. B. Strange having died previously, the firm incorporated under the 
style of The William Strange Co. * * * An anecdote exemplified 
the hahitual and just confidence of the Stranges in the fnturc of their 
business undertakings. While the great Paterson factory was yet in its 
infancy, William Strange attemjjted to sell its products to a leading Xew 
York ribbon house, but was told that it was imjjossible to make as good 
ribbons in Paterson as abroad and that there was no use in seeking the 
custom of the concern for such goo<ls, because they purchased only the 
best quality. To this objection .\Ir. Strange replied: "All right, gentle- 
men, we shall see in the future!" The event justified his expectations. 
I-or many years after, the concern which then declined to buy .American 
goods has ceased buying ribbons exclusively from abroad and has pur- 
chased largely from the Strange factory in Paterson. 

I'rom the above extract taken from "America's Successful 
Men," it is readily seen why Mr. Strange held his prominent place 
In the silk industry, and why their factory was one of the largest 
silk manufacturing establishments in the country. 

!n politics Mr. Strange was affiliated with the Republican party, 
anil w as a member of the Republican Club of Paterson. While in 
his militan- record .Mr. Strange could not boast of any active field 
service, he was the man wlio made possible the military and social 
organization first named the Paterson Light Guards, which was 
formed in 1879. J'wo prominent citizens of Paterson, Joseph W. 
Congdon and Samuel V. S. Muzzy, saw the need of a military com- 
pany in their city, and after several conversations with other inter- 
ested men, Mr. Strange said that he would finance the organization 
if they would furnish the men. In so doing he fostered and brought 
to fulfillment the patriotic spirit which was needed by his material 
help, and in that way did active service for his State and country 
which was as valuable, if not more so, than active field warfare. 
The first formal meeting of the Light Guards took place December 
19, 1879, and Joseph W. Congdon was elected major, his first order 
being issued January 31, 1880. After a few months of independent 
existence, the Light Guards felt the necessity of becoming a part of 
the National Guard, and were taken into that organization as the 
First Battalion National Guard of New Jersey, May 25, i88o. 



256 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

From the battalion Mr. Strange was promoted to the Governor's 
start and commissioned lieutenant-colonel and quartermaster of the 
division. i\Ir. Strange again served his State and city in 1884-85 
by financing and acting as chairman of the committee for the relief 
of the destitute during the panic of those years; he also made good 
the deficit when the committee was dissolved. He was president of 
the Paterson National Bank, and a director in the Paterson Safe De- 
posit & Trust Company. 

Mr. Strange devoted the most of his time to the industry 
founded by his house, but was also part proprietor of the Read & 
I.ovatt Company; in consequence of his interest in their objects he 
was connected with the American Protective Tariff League, the Pat- 
erson Board of Trade, the Paterson Ribbon Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion, the Silk Association of America, and the Washington Asso- 
ciation of New Jersey. He was a member of Joppa Lodge, No. 29, 
Free and Accepted Masons, and Cataract City Chapter, No. 10, 
Royal Arch Masons. Being a man of cultivated mind and agreeable 
manners, he was exceedingly popular in social life, as is shown by 
his membership in the Union League, German Liederkranz, United 
Service, Princess Anne, Orange County Country, Merchants' Cen- 
tral, Hamilton and Amabelish Fishing clubs, and the Blooming 
Grove Park Association, besides being president of the Park Commis- 
sion of Paterson. He and his family were members of the Presby- 
terian church of Paterson. 

On May 2, 1863, at Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Strange mar- 
ried Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Jehial and Sylvia (Kendrick) 
Read. Their children were: Sylvia Elizabeth, born June 14, 1864, 
died September 6, 1875; Blanche Louise, born June 8, 1865; Albert 
Bruton, born August 20, 1870; Edwin Louis, born April 6, 1877, 
died August 17, 1878. 









C>U^<9^ Vlf^^riX 



JAMES WILSON 



1i > tv ■ the man who achieves ;nade 

of Sir iiis fellow man, but tii rtain 

,^>pcnsa[ cs that contribute to the prosperity of 

'■ energy, enterprise and determination, 
and improve opportunities. These qual- 
iiici. I s in the character of James Wilson, and 

co,n(. ■ i i 'jiress from a humble station in life to one 

Mr. Wilson has res, ' 
now is a member ol 
\Vilson & Son. 

cd in the piiblic schools of Airdrie, 

i, 1842. He is 

■ i( Thomas nnd 

1, the former of whom was a mine upcr- 

land during the greater part of his active 

tiool, James Wilson began to work in coal 

Mi.i operated by his people in Scotland. These 

i. of the system owned by the Wilson & Clyde 

of which Mr. Wilson's cousin, Sir John 

lirman. 

e ties which bound him to home 

America, locating in Paterson, 

in the lumber business, and in 1870 

ice with John Dunlop and Taiiice IT. 

1 name of J. H. Westervelt & 

. . al. The place of business of tlu . _... 

near the tracks of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
. V ' '^'74 Mr. Wilson withdrew from the above 

firm al business on his own account, opening up 

yan' iM street, this site being now used as coal pockets 



,. HiF^x 



JAMES WILSON 



IT is not necessary that the man who achieves success be made 
of sterner stuff than his fellow man, but there are certain 
indispensable characteristics that contribute to the prosperity of 
the individual; these are energy, enterprise and determination, 
and the ability to recognize and improve opportunities. These qual- 
ities were cardinal elements in the character of James Wilson, and 
accompanied him in his progress from a humble station in life to one 
of prominence and affluence. Mr. Wilson has resided in Paterson, 
New Jersey, since 1864, and now is a member of the corporation 
known under the title of James Wilson & Son. 

James Wilson was educated in the public schools of Airdrie, 
Lanarkshire, Scotland, where he was born March 21, 1842. He is 
descended from the Scotch peerage, and is a son of Thomas and 
Jessie (Beveridge) Wilson, the former of whom was a mine oper- 
ator and merchant in Scotland during the greater part of his active 
career. After leaving school, James Wilson began to work in coal 
and iron mines owned and operated by his people in Scotland. These 
mines are now a part of the system owned by the Wilson & Clyde 
Coal Company, Limited, of which Mr. Wilson's cousin. Sir John 
Wilson, Bart., NL P., is chairman. 

In 1864 Mr. Wilson severed the ties which bound him to home 
and native land, and immigrated to America, locating in Paterson, 
New Jersey. Here he engaged in the lumber business, and in 1870 
entered into a partnership alliance with John Dunlop and James H. 
Westervelt, under the firm name of J. H. Westervelt & Company, 
dealers in lumber and coal. The place of business of this concern 
was on Barclay street, near the tracks of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
& Western railroad. In 1874 Mr. Wilson withdrew from the abov^e 
firm and engaged in the coal business on his own account, opening up 
yards on Marshall street, this site being now used as coal pockets 

NC-17 



258 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

and storage plant by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Rail- 
road Company. About the time of the sale of the property on Mar- 
shall street, Mr. Wilson admitted his son, James Wilson Jr., into 
a business partnership, and they purchased property at Railroad ave- 
nue, Slater street and Dale avenue, whereon they erected their pres- 
ent large coal pockets, which at the time of their construction were 
the first of their kind in this section of the State. In 1908 the busi- 
ness was incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey, 
under the style of James Wilson & Son, Incorporated. A very ex- 
tensive trade is controlled, and the same represents one of the big 
business enterprises in Paterson. 

In addition to his coal interests, Mr. Wilson Sr. is a director 
in the Silk City Safe Deposit & Trust Company. In politics he is a 
stalwart Republican. In 1887 he was appointed by Mayor Beckwith 
as one of the commissioners who selected the sites of the Eastside 
and Westside parks. He was appointed by Mayor Beveridge a 
member of the first Board of Public Works in Paterson, and for two 
terms served as president of the board. Socially, he is a member of 
the Hamilton Club, and in religious matters he is a devout member 
of the Presbyterian church, having served at one'time as a trustee of 
the First Presbyterian Church in Paterson. 

May 25, 1864, Mr. Wilson married, at Hill Place, Glasgow, 
Scotland, Miss Margaret Miller, daughter of Dr. Andrew and 
Christina Miller, of Glasgow. Six children have been born to this 
union; following are their names and respective dates of birth: 
Christina, February, 1865; Jessie, May, 1866; Jean, January, 1868; 
James, August, 1874; David, July, 1877; and Clyde, June, 1882. 










^#. 



' si*;*/ 




^^■/?. 



S/. c/' 3^ 



o'6€'/nc/J 



J 



;OHN HENi EMUS 



acnng citr/en; it 

in wood and slate 

rhe Stare 

i, 1866. 

ijrandson or Henry Doremus, 

>t Paterson. :h' *"„• lily being 

John Dorer living in 

mother of Joh' iiis, was 

e died when he H., was 

.i with an aunt in i ' ' he 

he public schools the he 

Mr. Doremus Iivcu a idi an 

New Jersey, continuing his 

hen lived with the widow 

. for a Mr. Van Kiper. 

:. sixteen, and worked for 

i :: n.' ' \j _ (ui ]■ yi for nearly three years. 

:<> Passaic and worked for six years for Peter. Van 

,. ^, .r 1,,-Tre business, his employer being no near 

yer. In 1891 Mr. Doremus' life was 

itariiris ,n which he was destined to make such a 

<s after he became his own employer and free to 

e became office manager 

:., for Cornel'ii'; Ke\ itt, 

vhom he ■ ■ 'o 

i-i,elf hvi- ;■!■ 

rni ot Blauvelt rs 

> of three years ^ Ir. 

ss under his ow il 1909, 

: name of John - ' '^ " 



JOHN HENRY DOR EMUS 



JOHN HENRY DORElMUS, one of the leading citizens of 
Passaic, New Jersey, and the largest dealer in wood and slate 
mantels, tile work, slate work, and fire-place furnishings in the State 
of New Jersey, was born in Paterson, New Jersey, August 1 1, 1866. 
He was the son of John Doremus, and grandson of Henry Doremus, 
both of whom were likewise natives of Paterson, the family being 
one of the oldest in that section. John Doremus is still living in 
New York State; his first wife, mother of John H. Doremus, was 
Amelia (Barnard) Doremus. She died when her son, John H., was 
only one year old, and he remained with an aunt in Paterson until he 
was ten years old, and attended the public schools there. From the 
time he was ten until he was fifteen Mr. Doremus lived with an 
uncle, John Garrabrant, at Richfield, New Jersey, continuing his 
scanty schooling. His uncle died, and he then lived with the widow 
in Brooklyn for a year, clerking in a bakery for a Mr. Van Riper. 
Mr. Doremus then went to Paterson when sixteen, and worked for 
J. A. Van Winkle in the hardware business for nearly three years. 
In 1885 he went to Passaic and worked for six years for Peter Van 
Winkle, also in the hardware business, his employer being no near 
relative to his former employer. In 1891 Mr. Doremus' life was 
diverted into the channels in which he was destined to make such a 
conspicuous success after he became his own employer and free to 
work out his own success, for in that year he became office manager 
in charge of office work, buying materials, etc., for Cornelius Kevitt, 
a contractor and builder, of Passaic, with whom he remained two 
years. In 1893 ^^ ^^^^ launched out for himself by becoming a part- 
ner tt ith John C. Blauvelt, in the firm of Blauvelt & Doremus, dealers 
in mantels, tiling, etc. At the end of three years he bought out Mr. 
Biau\'elt and continued the business under his own name until 1909, 
when he incorporated it under the name of John H. Doremus Com- 



260 BIOGRAPHICAL EXXYCLOPEDIA 

pail}, of which he is president and treasurer, and his son, Alfred 
Van Riper Dorenius, is secretary. Their business has grown to very 
large proportions, and extends to all the adjacent territory, and 
carrying more than five hundred mantels in stock. 

In politics John H. Doremus is a Republican, having served as 
a member of the City Council in 1898. His patriotism found other 
methods of expression, one of which cost him more heavily than can 
be expressed in any terms known to any of those who have not suf- 
fered a like calamity. For seven and a half years he had been second 
lieutenant of Company D, Second Regiment National Guard of New 
Jersey, when in 1898 he went out to the Spanish War. He only 
reached Jackson\ ille, Florida, where in camp he lost his health so 
completely that he resigned his commission and returned home, but 
his illness cost him the sight of both eyes, and he is totally blind — 
surely a high price to pay for devotion to duty. Yet one who is un- 
aware of this afHiction may meet and converse for a long time with 
Mr. Doremus in his office and never suspect that his eyes are no 
longer windows to his soul. He is so alert, cheerful, natural, keeps 
such track of all details, and of current events that it is a pleasure to 
know him. He is a past commander of General A. S. Burt Camp, 
No. 2, United Spanish War Veterans, of Passaic; a charter member 
of the National Union, a fraternal order of which he is also a trus- 
tee; also a charter member of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
men, and a trustee of the Junior Order United American Mechanics; 
a member of the Republican Club, and of the Board of Trade of 
Passaic, and a trustee of the Passaic Baptist Church. 

On November 3, 1886, John H. Doremus was married to 
Agnes S. Marshall, who was born in Scotland, daughter of Alex- 
ander and Agnes (Kinloch) Marshall. They are the parents of five 
cliildren : Alfred Van Riper, in business with his father; Agnes 
May, Amelia Lillie, Alexander .Marshall and Evelyn Mildred. 

In addition to his regular business, Mr. Doremus is largely 
interested as an owner of real estate, and built and owns the finest 
apartment house in Passaic, located on Bloomheld and Grove streets, 
including seven stores and eighteen apartments. 



WILLIAM JOYCE SEWELL 



WILLIAM JOYCE SEWELL was one of the splendid men 
which the North of Ireland has contributed to the ranks 
of foreign-born Americans, whose good citizenship and patriotism 
in the land of their adoption rivals that of the best native stock, and 
for whose eminent services we must forever stand indebted to the 
lands across the sea. He was born in Castlebar, Ireland. December 
6, 1835, and came to the United States when but sixteen years of 
age, where he soon became completely identified with the interests 
of the new land, taking part in its affairs and business with entire 
disinterestedness and public spirit. Upon arrival he found employ- 
ment in a shipping house for which he made several voyages in the 
merchant's marine service. He later went to Chicago and engaged 
in business there for a period, but in i860 he came to Camden, New 
Jersey, where he made his home for the rest of his life. 

The time of Mr. Sewell's coming to New Jersey was a critical 
one in the history of the United States, with the great controversy 
over slavery and the right of secession about to be precipitated into 
civil war, and no one took a more vital interest in the progress of 
events than did Mr. Sewell, so that on the outbreak of actual hostil- 
ities the following year, he volunteered his services in the cause of 
the Union and was commissioned as captain in the Fifth New Jersey 
Regiment, August 28, 1861. It was not long before he had an 
opportunity to display his courage and gallantry, which were notable, 
and his promotion was accordingly rapid, so that ere long wc find 
him colonel of his regiment, still the Fifth New Jersey. In the 
battle of Chancellorsville a great opportunity came to him to dis- 
tinguish himself, of which he took advantage in a striking manner. 
It happened that in this engagement. General Mott, who commanded 
the brigade of which Sewell's regiment was a part, was badly 
wounded, so that the command fell to Sewell at a most critical point 



262 JJlOGRAPlllCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

in the battle. Seizing the leadership, he led his forces forward to 
so gallant a charge that the tide of war was turned and one of the 
most brilliant victories of the war was won, in the course of which 
his command retook the lost colors of a New York regiment and 
captured no less than eight regimental standards of the enemy. 
Cj'eneral Sewell added to his laurels in the terrible battle of Gettys- 
burg, but was here badly wounded while at the head of his troops 
which formed a part of Sickles' gallant corps. Sickness resulting 
from over-exposure and the effect of his wound compelled him to 
retire temporarily from the service in July, 1864, but in September 
of the same year he was made colonel of the Thirty-eighth New 
Jersey with which he returned to the field. On April 9, i866, he 
was made brevet brigadier-general of volunteers for "gallant and 
meritorious conduct in the battle of Chancellorsville." On the close 
of the war he was honored still more highly, being brevetted major- 
general. He now returned to Camden, only to continue the dis- 
tinguished services to his country in time of peace, which had been 
so well begun in the period of her strife and peril. The Hon. Joel 
Parker, Governor of New Jersey, on the occasion of his reelection, 
appointed General Sewell a member of his personal staff, a position 
which he held along with his rank as major-general through a 
special act of the Legislature permitting him to do so. 

In 1 88 1 he was elected by the State Legislature to the United 
States Senate, and was twice reelected, for the third time in January, 
1901, but did not live to fill this term. In 1898, during his second 
term in the Senate, he was appointed by President McKinley a 
major-general of volunteers for service in the Spanish War, but upon 
the unanimous petition of the Republican members of the Senate, 
the President requested him not to take the field. 

General Sewell was greatly interested in the World's Fair, at 
Philadelphia, and was among the first to suggest that the National 
and State governments contribute to the support of the undertaking. 
He was at the time a member of the New Jersey Legislature, and 
proceeded to put his suggestion into effect, by influencing that body 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 263 

to vote an appropriation of $100,000 for the undertaking. During 
his term in the United States Senate he was very active and served 
on the Senate committees on appropriations, military affairs, terri- 
tories, interoceanic canal, and immigration, and was chairman of the 
committee on engrossed hills. He died in Camden, universally hon- 
ored, December 27, 1901, not quite a year after his election to the 
United States Senate for the third time. 



JOHN RODERICK McPHERSON 



JOHN RODERICK McPHERSON, stock farmer, financier and 
statesman, was born May 9, 1833, in York, Livingston county, 
New York, of pure Scotch parentage. His grandfather, James Mc- 
Pherson had come from Culloden, Scotland, in 1801, and settled in 
Delhi, New York, and his father, Donald McPherson, married Jean 
Calder, whose parents had also come from Scotland. 

Mr. McPherson gained his education in the public schools and 
later in the Geneseo Academy. He became interested in stock rais- 
ing and, upon graduating from this institution, he took up the 
same as a business and engaged in it successfully until his twent)'- 
sixth year. He then removed to Jersey City, then Hudson City, 
and following up his interest, became a dealer in cattle, an import- 
ant industry of the place. In this city, in 1863-64, he constructed 
the city stock yards, of which he became part owner. He also 
designed and built the enormous stock yards and abattoir at Harsi- 
mus Co\e, New Jersey, for many years the finest in existence. 
These great yards cover an area of twenty-two acres, over which 
entire region the tide ebbs and flows. There is storage capacity 
here for seven thousand head of cattle and twenty thousand sheep, 
and a slaughtering capacity of two thousand cattle and ten thousand 
sheep daily. Mr. McPherson was keenly alive to the abuses exist- 
ing at that time in the transportation and storage of cattle, and 
it was to remedy these that his inventive genius and resources 
were called into play. Besides the improved yards and abattoirs 
which he devised, and which revolutionized these constructions, 
he also invented a new form of stock car in which it was pos- 
sible to feed and water the animals en route, and which have now 
come into practically universal use. Mr. McPherson became in 
course of time wealthy from his various enterprises, and his probity 
and business acumen brought his services into great demand, so that 



r.lOr.RAl'llICAI. EXCYCLOPEUIA 265 



he served upon various boards and committees in connection with 
many business concerns. He founded the Peoples' Gas Light Com- 
pany, of Hudson City, and served as the first president for a number 
of years. He was very active in politics also and was a member of 
the Board of Aldermen of Hudson Cit)' from 1863 to 1869, and 
president of that body for the last three years. In 1872 he was 
elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Legislature, an office 
he held for three years. During this time he took a strong stand 
against the undue encroachments of the great railroad monopolies 
in the State and was instrumental in securing the passage of the gen- 
eral railroad law governing these bodies. In 1877 he was elected by 
the State Legislature to the United States Senate to succeed the Hon. 
Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, and was twice reelected, occupying this 
high office from 1877 to 1895, and during his third term was chosen 
chairman of the Senate Conmiittee on Naval Affairs. He was 
offered the Secretaryship of the Treasury, but declined this honor, 
and two years after the expiration of his term :is Senator he died, 
October 8, 1897. 






JOHN P. STOCKTON 



JOHN P. STOCKTON, lawyer and statesman, is a member of 
the family of that name which need yield to none in its claim 
upon the gratitude of New Jersey, or in the record of the services it 
has rendered to the State which has so long been its home. Richard 
Stockton, the elder, the ardent patriot, the staunch opponent of 
British oppression in colonial days and finally Signer of the immortal 
Declaration, was his great-grandfather, nor were the intermediate 
generations less distinguished. His grandfather was the eminent 
jurist and statesman, Richard Stockton, the younger, whose career 
and personality has done so much for the traditions of the New 
Jersey Bar, and his father, Robert Field Stockton, the gallant com- 
modore and prudent Senator. John P. Stockton thus represents the 
fourth generation in direct descent which has contributed to the fair 
name of New Jersey and the third which has served her in the Sen- 
atorial capacity. 

He was born in Princeton, the old Stockton home, on August 
2, 1826, and received his education there, graduating from Prince- 
ton College with the class of i 843, when only seventeen years of age, 
whereupon he took up the study of law and used his time to such 
good advantage that he was admitted to the bar In 1846. It was 
not long before his gifts had advanced him to a leading position in 
his profession and he was appointed to the responsible position of 
Reporter of the Court of Chancery. During his occupancy of this 
office he published the three valuable volumes of "Equity Reports," 
which bear his name. He was engaged in many of the important 
cases then before the courts, and was counsel for the Pennsylvania 
railroad in what was the greatest railroad war that ever took place 
in the State. In 1858 President Buchanan appointed him Minister 
to Rome, and he removed to that city, where he remained until 
1 861, when, at his own request, he was recalled. In 1865 he was 



BIOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 267 

elected to the United States Senate, but a dispute arose regarding 
the formality of his election and, after much discussion and the 
presentation of evidence which by many was considered ample to 
support his contention, the Senate declared his election informal and 
he was consequently unseated. After this he returned to his private 
practice, which he pursued with success until 1868, when the Legis- 
lature again sent him to Washington as I nited States Senator from 
New Jersey to succeed Frederick T. 1 lelinghuysen. During his 
term he served on the Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, Navy, 
Appropriation, Patents and Public Buildings. In 1877 he was made 
Attorney-General of New Jersey, an office he held until 1892. In 
1882, Princeton College conferred upon him the honorary degree 
o{ LL. D. Toward the end of his life he retired somewhat from 
public life and died January 22, 1900, in New York City. 



FREDERICK THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN 



IN a list of the United States Senators from New Jersey, the 
eye cannot but be struck by the recurrence of the name of Fre- 
linghuysen. Three times does it appear in that notable roster, repre- 
senting three generations of the one distinguished family engaged 
in their country's service. 1 he first of these was General Frederick 
Frelinghuysen, Revolutionary hero and patriot, who risked his life 
and fortune in the cause of freedom; the second was Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen, the eminent jurist and upright man; and the third, Fred- 
erick Theodore Frelinghuysen, the subject of this memoir, who 
inherited not only the name but, in full measure, the worth and ability 
of his illustrious forebears. From the gifted Theodoras Jacobus 
Frelinghuysen, the first of the name to come to the New World, for 
five generations downward, there had been no time when the name 
was not represented by men in the front rank of citizens, men who 
were playing a great part in the affairs of State. Theodorus himself 
had left the security of the Old World for a life of hardship and diffi- 
culty in the New, and he is honored as one of the most sincere and 
eloquent of the many worthy divines who worked and preached in 
the cause of religion in the American colonies. Not less gifted in 
the same worthy qualities was his son, the Rev. John Frelinghuysen, 
who succeeded his father in the arduous labors which his post in- 
volved. Indeed, from these two excellent men, the long line of 
worthy descendants seem to have inherited a strong sense of the 
reality of religious things, consistently applying their principles to 
the conduct of their daily li\es. 

General Frederick Frelinghuysen left three sons, of whom the 
second, Theodore, followed in his father's footsteps to the exalted 
position which he occupied in the estimation of his fellow citizens. 
The third, Frederick, also gave great promise of future ability, hav- 
ing despite his early death left a name for himself of an enthusiastic 



F? m MliAv THEODOHK I REl.mGHUY8EN 



I ! -f the United States Sen \'ew Jersey, the 

I e . 'vt but be struck by the re \i name of Fre- 

';• ;vf'> Three times does it appear oster, repre- 

f ■-■•■■■■ ij^enerations of the one ■' iy engaged 

■ y's service. The first of J Frederick 

Revolutionary hero ami ^i.m .> , ' his life 

the cause of freedom; the second •' --: Fre- 

( eininent jurist and upright man; d d- 

• Frelinghuysen, the subject of : ■"> 

he name but, in full measure, the WO: i', .. . 

^orebears. From the gifted Theodorub ■ 

•!!e first of the name to come to the New Worlo, for 

; downward, there had been no time when the name 

I-*' ■ ■■ nted by men in the front rank of citizens, men who 

-*i ■_ ^(t:at part in the affairs of State. Theodorus himself 

ii4 ! ' H ;. ,ty of theOldWorld for a lifeof hardship and diffi- 

1. = -hi- ^.' . x.nd he is honored as one of thr .re and 

» .. ' '-fi ;'.; . .liv worthy divines who worki - bed in 

< •..•^. i. the American colonies . • :'.i.s i^ifted in 

I - ■ •• »■' ; was his son, the Rev John Frelinghuysen, 

' in the arduous labors which his post in- 

. i-.ese two excellent men, the long line of 

V ^ ;:>•"< to have inherited a strong sense of the 

> f''''V,?!. rtmsistently applying their principles to 

I- i- d:ii!\ ';\ ■■■:■> 

rick Frt'T'srhuysen left three sons, of whom the 
i'ollowed -li hi^ father's footsteps to the exalted 
f -cupied in th;- -^timation of his fellow citizens. 
. also ga\e grc-.ri promise of future ability, hdv- 
V !i-,irh left a nair.c lor himself of an enthns .tstic 





V 



c72t oL . q7. Jo 



iSL 



UlOGRAnilCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 269 



eloquent man and an able lawyer. He died at the early age of 
thirty-two, leaving a young wife and five children, of whom Fred- 
erick Theodore was the youngest. 

Frederick Theodore PVelinghuysen, jurist and statesman, was 
born August 4, 18 17, at Millstone, New Jersey. His father dying 
when he was but three years of age, he was adopted by his uncle 
Theodore, who had no children of his own and lavished all his care 
upon the little nephew. Among other things, the boy was given the 
best possible education, attending at different times the Newark and 
Somerville academies. At length he entered Rutgers College and 
graduated therefrom with the class of 1S36. It is said of him that, 
as a student, his talents were generally of a high order, but that he 
had no special genius for any subject, his preference being for moral 
philosophy and allied subjects and for rhetoric and oratory. After 
his graduation he took supplementary courses at the college which 
finally brought him the degree of A. M. It is not to be wondered 
at that, with the traditions of his family pointing thither, and the 
example and inspiration which he had in his uncle, the young man 
should have chosen for himself the profession of the law. The 
study of this he took up under the tutelage of his uncle, at the same 
time he was doing his post-graduate work at Rutgers, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1839. It was in this year that his uncle aban- 
doned his practice of the law to become Chancellor of the University 
of the City of New York, and it thus befell that young Freling- 
huysen had one of the largest law businesses of the State ready for 
him to take up. lo inherit thus an established law office and library 
and a large business to hand was undoubtedly an advantage, but let 
it not be thought an easy position for a young and inexperienced 
man, launched thus upon a sea of the gravest responsibilities. To 
the handling of so difficult a position, young Frelinghuysen brought 
a happy combination of qualities. Inheriting from his father the 
fervid, persuasive address and profoundly religious tone of the Fre- 
linghuysens. and from his mother personal beauty and great charm 
of manner, he was at once a winning and convincing figure, and he 



270 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

drew and bound to himself many of his uncle's prominent friends, 
among whom may be mentioned Chief Justice Hornblower, Gov- 
ernor Pennington, and many others. In 1 842 Mr. Frelinghuysen mar- 
ried Miss Matilda Griswold, the daughter of George A. Griswold, 
of New York. City. In 1849 he became the City Attorney for Newark 
and the following year a member of the City Council. From this 
time forward his political career was unbroken in its progress 
upward. He seemed the child of fortune and it is said that only 
once did he fail to secure any position for which he was a candidate. 
In this case he was pitted against William L. Dayton for the office 
of Attorney-General of New Jersey. This Dayton won, but not 
long afterwards, upon his appointment by President Lincoln as 
Minister to France, Frelinghuysen was at once chosen to fill the 
vacancy. This appointment was by Governor Olden in 1861, and 
three years later he was reappointed to the same office by Governor 
Ward. In 1861 he was also sent as a delegate from New Jersey to 
the Peace Convention in Washington. In 1866, Governor Ward 
appointed him United States Senator to fill the place of Senator 
Wright, and in 1867 the Legislature confirmed his selection. In 
1869 he was offered the position of Minister to Great Britain by 
President Grant but declined the honor. It was learned after his 
death that his reason for so strange a refusal was the fear of Mrs. 
Frelinghuysen of subjecting her children to the unrepublican influ- 
ences of court life. He was again elected to the Senate In 1871 
and during this term he distinguished himself highly, taking a 
leading position in the deliberations of the body. In 1881 he was 
made Secretary of State by President Arthur. At the close of the 
administration in 18S5, Mr. Frelinghuysen retired to private life, 
but his great exertions had undermined his health and he was almost 
immediately stricken with a sickness from which he never rallied. 
He died May 20, 1885, at his home in Newark. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen was a Whig and Republican in politics, a 
conservati\e man of strong convictions, and this tendency was 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 271 

reflected also in his religious beliefs which were eminently orthodox. 
On occasion, he could take the radical side, however, as can be 
seen in his attitude towards the enfranchisement of the negroes in 
the reconstruction period when he voted with the most radical 
Republicans. At his death all united to offer a tribute of praise .o 
the good man and distinguished citizen, and his city erected a 
splendid monument and statue to his memory. 



ROBERT R. ARMSTRONG, M. D. 



DR. ROBERT ROBINSON ARMSTRONG, one of the lead- 
ing members of the medical fraternity of Passaic county, 
actively engaged in the practice of his profession in Passaic, where 
he is highly honored and respected by all who know him, was born 
in Shawville, Province of Quebec, Canada, July 15, 1871. 

Robert Robinson Armstrong, father of Dr. Armstrong, was 
born in county Fermanagh, Ireland, about 1838, died March i, 
1899, in Paterson, New Jersey. He was reared, educated and grew 
to manhood in his native land, and there married Rebecca McKeown, 
living at the present time in Paterson, aged seventy-six years. Mr. 
Armstrong was a coal merchant. Accompanied by his family he 
removed from Ireland in 1871, locating in Canada, where he 
remained until 1885, when he removed to Paterson, New Jersey, 
where the remainder of his life was spent. His career was one of 
usefulness and activity, and his influence for good was felt in the 
various communities in which he resided. Nine children were born 
to Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong. 

Dr. Armstrong obtained his literary education in public and 
private schools of Quebec, Canada, and Paterson, New Jersey, 
whither his parents removed when he was fourteen years of age. He 
pursued his medical studies in the New York University Medical 
School, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine in 1895. He at once began his professional career in 
Paterson, remaining for three years, during which time he gained 
valuable experience to add to the theoretical knowledge obtained in 
his preparatory course, and also the esteem of his patients. He 
then went abroad, spending one and a half years in Vienna and 
Leipsic, this proving of great value to him along the line of his 
work. Upon his return to his native land he located in Passaic, New 
Jersey, where he is engaged in active practice at the present time. 



liJcniKAriHCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 273 



He Is thorough and painstaking in his diagnosis and treatment of 
every patient who consults him, and by reading and research keeps 
well infonned on all matters pertaining to his profession. In Janu- 
ary, 1907, he was elected by the Board of Freeholders as County 
Physician, and so capably did he perform his duties that he has been 
reelected three times since. F'or five years he ser\ ed as a member of 
the Board of Health of Passaic. 

NC— 18 



FRANK PETER VENABLE 



FRANK PETER VENABLE, actively and prominently con- 
nected with the business interests of Paterson, New Jersey, 
his native city, is a lineal descendant of Baron Kanderton Venables 
(as the name was originally spelled in France), who came from 
Normandy to England with William the Conqueror. 

Peter N. Venable, father of Frank P. Venable, was a native 
of England, from which country he accompanied his parents to the 
United States during his childhood, but he was deprived by death of 
their care and protection when he was twelve years old. After 
completing his education he learned the trade of machinist, was 
connected with locomotive works of Paterson, and for twenty years 
served in the capacity of foreman of repair works of the New York, 
Susquehanna and Western railroad. He was a man of high char- 
acter, and won and retained the respect of all with whom he was 
associated. He married Sarah, daughter of George and Martha 
(Morehouse) Addy, the former of whom was the owner of farms, 
brick yards and mills, served as alderman of Paterson, died 1902, 
and the latter died in 1903. Peter N. Venable and Sarah (Addy) 
Venable are in 19 13 living in Paterson. Children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Venable: Frank Peter, of whom further; Martha; George N., 
principal of schools in West Hoboken, New Jersey; Anna, wife of 
Edgar M. Tilt, of Paterson, New Jersey. 

Frank Peter Venable was born in Paterson, New Jersey, August 
22, 1 88 1. He attended the public schools of his native city and Rut- 
gers College, New Brunswick, leaving the latter named institution 
in his sophomore year to engage in business pursuits. In 1902 he 
gave his attention to the conduct of his mother's real estate, and has 
continued to do so to the present time (19 13). In the spring of 
1909 he established the Rambler Auto Company of Paterson, which 
is now in successful operation, bringing in substantial returns, and 



BIOGRAPHICAL EXCVCLOl'EDIA 275 

he is also secretar>' and treasurer of the Addy, Venable Company 
of Paterson, which owns mills and leases them to tenants, deriving 
therefrom a lucrative income. Mr. Venable is a member of Grace 
Methodist Episcopal Church, of Paterson, and independent in poli- 
tics. 

Mr. Venable married, in Paterson, New Jersey, June 14, 1905, 
Sadie Hoyt, of Paterson, born February 8, I 881. Children: Ruth, 
bom November 7, 1907; Eleanor, bom October 6, 19 10; Frank 
Raymond, born June 27, 19 12. 



JOHN JOSEPH RITTER, M. D. 



DR. JOHN JOSEPH RITTER, one of the leading physicians 
of Paterson, New Jersey, was born in that city. May 2, 1871, 
the son of Martin Ritter, who was born in Austria but came to Amer- 
ica at an early age, and of Lena (Kramer) Ritter, who was born in 
Kingston, New York, daughter of Peter and Rosalie Kramer. In 
Austria, Martin Ritter was a schoolmaster, but upon coming to 
America he established himself in Paterson as a silk weaver. He 
died December 20, 1891. His widow still lives in Paterson, New 
Jersey. 

Dr. Ritter was educated by private tutors and in the public and 
parochial schools of Paterson. Choosing a professional career, he 
attended the Baltimore Medical College, from which he was gradu- 
ated in 1901, in which year he established himself in general practice 
in Paterson, where he has a very large practice. Dr. Ritter is physi- 
cian for the Outdoor Department of St. Joseph's Hospital and of 
Mount St. Joseph's Home for Boys at Paterson. He ran for 
coroner on the Democratic ticket in 1902, and with his ticket was 
defeated. He has served for six years as medical inspector of the 
public schools of Paterson. Dr. Ritter is a member of the Knights 
of Columbus, of the Elks Club, of the Improved Order of Hepta- 
sophs, and of the Roman Catholic church. 

On September 24, 1903, Dr. Joseph J. Ritter was married to 
Clara Anna Buschman, daughter of William and Hannah (Kohl- 
house) Buschman, of Paterson, New Jersey. Her father died June 
I, iqio, and her mother still lives in Paterson. Dr. and Mrs. 
Ritter are the parents of five children: Katherine Anna, William 
Charles, John Joseph, Clara Buschman and Margery. They make 
their home at No. 16 Smith street, Paterson. 




iyf-a^'i/yyi/y •;>' 



^^...r/^/ 



AARON PECK 



AARON Ph:CK CONUIT. late - ' ' ■ ^\« jersey, was 

bvirn December 17, 1839, a' county. New 

of Samuel and Phoebe (Petl,) LvnJit, and a lineal 
jf John Cunditt (or Condit) whf was Urst of record in 
in 167S The family was in ;; I'ty of Norman 

■ the iK cstor came to this cou; A'ales. They 

on in England, even at that early day, and in 
"OP of the largest ^> <' '^'^■■--■■n ;)nd most 
it has given n ;.ttcsmen, 

.MiJ business me- :i: img in the 

v have located. Ti racteristics of 

ifidependence, t igment, sound 

^(.jrritv and adi' uth and f.0\f- 

father to ' ■ 
to-day as t;. 

■ '■h in lineal descent frm; !•'>■; 
'^ur Irt f -.tor, the line being as follows 

1798, died October 22. i i _ . 
1 of James Peck. Samuel Condit 
. ,■■ :. iiicd August 31, 1822, and IJannah 
.'ghtcr of Ichabod Harrison. Daniel Condit 
'■ ' ' ' 'I, 1785, I ' ' 

(2), bor- 
• i, 1777, and Mary Dudd, born "^ 
17;;!:. Peter Condit f T ), di'.-.' ^n • 
Mar\ ison. Pete 

was ;: Cunditt. 

were patri . c\'olution. 

Until ! . . ,.ars of age Mr. Condi' -xu-tiAi-A thi- nub- 




/riff /-A / ' '''/'/vr//-/ 



AARON PECK CONDIT 



AARON PhXK CONDIT, late of Madison, New Jersey, was 
born December 17, 1839, at Orange, Essex county. New 
Jersey, son of Samuel and Phoebe (Peck) Condit, and a lineal 
descendant of John Cunditt (or Condit) who was first of record in 
this country in 1678. The family was in all probability of Norman 
descent, but the ancestor came to this country from Wales. They 
were people of distinction in England, even at that early day, and in 
America the family is one of the largest, best known and most 
respected in the country. It has given to the republic statesmen, 
judges, lawyers, divines and business men of high standing in the 
communities where they have located. The main characteristics of 
these people are a sturdy independence, excellent judgment, sound 
common sense, downright integrity and adherence to truth and right- 
eousness. These characteristics have descended from father to son 
and are as pronounced among those bearing the name to-day as they 
were among the earlier generations. 

Aaron Peck Condit was the sixth in lineal descent from John 
Cunditt, the immigrant ancestor, the line being as follows: Samuel 
Condit (5), born March 22, 1798, died October 22, 1864, and 
Phoebe Peck, his wife, daughter of James Peck. Samuel Condit 
(4), bom August 16, 1761, died August 31, 1822, and Hannah 
Harrison, his wife, daughter of Ichabod Harrison. Daniel Condit 
(3), born December 27, 1723, died November 11, 1785, and Ruth, 
daughter of Gershom Williams. Samuel Condit (2), born Decem- 
ber 6, 1696, died July 18, 1777, and Mary Dodd, born November 
8, 1698, died May 29, 17^5- Peter Condit ( i ), died in 17 14, and 
Mary, daughter of Samuel I larrison. Peter Condit ( i ) or Cunditt 
was a son of the original John Cunditt. Two of these ancestors 
were patriot soUliers in the revolution. 

Until he was fifteen years of age Mr. Condit attended the pub- 



278 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

lie schools of East Orange, afterward continuing his studies under 
the tuition of Rev. David H. Pierson, a distinguished teacher who 
for many years conducted a seminary at Elizabeth, New Jersey. 
Mrs. Pierson was a cousin of Mr. Condit. For four years after 
leaving school he remained with his father on the farm, but a busi- 
ness life appealed to him and he went to Fremont, Ohio, and entered 
into partnership with his brother, Samuel D. Condit, carrying on a 
dry goods business under the firm name of Condit Brothers. Later, 
William W. Brant, of Belleville, New Jersey, was admitted to the 
firm and shortly after this Mr. Condit returned to New Jersey on 
account of ill health, retaining his connection with the store, how- 
ever, as resident buyer, his brother having retired from the business. 
Mr. Condit was also interested in a dry goods business at Mans- 
field, Ohio, under the name of A. P. Condit & Company, this store 
being in charge of Captain A. H. Condit, formerly of Morristown, 
New Jersey. In 1875 he retired from the dry goods trade and until 
his death, February 11, 19 12, was a dealer and broker in real estate, 
in which he was rewarded with rare success. 

Mr. Condit was connected with the Republican party from its 
organization. For eight years he was a member of the Common 
Council of the borough of Florham Park, which was a part of Chat- 
ham township, Morris county, and was also on the Republican Com- 
mittee of that borough. In 1881 he transferred his membership to 
the First Presbyterian Church of Madison, where he became a faith- 
ful attendant. For seventeen years he was a member of the board 
of trustees and part of that time acted as president of that body. 
He was made a Master Mason in Brainard Lodge, No. 336, Fre- 
mont, Ohio, and became a Royal Arch Mason in Fremont Chapter, 
No. 64, of Fremont; he was made a Knight Templar in Toledo 
Commandery, No. 7, of Toledo, Ohio. Mr. Condit also held mem- 
bership in the New Jersey Historical Society, and the Sons of the 
American Revolution of New Jersey. 

On December 17, 1861, at Hanover, Morris county, New Jer- 



I'.lOGRAl'lllCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 279 

sey, Mr. Condit was married to Sarah Antoinette Ward, born Sep- 
tember 2, 1839, daughter of Joseph C. and Eliza (Camp) Ward, 
who survives him with the following children: Grace, born October 
14, 1862, married Chester C. Brown; Henrietta W., born October 
i:;, 1864; Charles B., born December 21, 1865; two others, Row- 
land, born in 1868, and Mortimer B., born in 1870, died in infancy. 




HENRY EWALD WOELFLE, M. D. 



DR. HENRY E. WOELFLE, already known as a brilliant 
young surgeon of Jersey City, has been in active practice here 
for the past ten years or more, and promises to add considerable dis- 
tinction to his name In the course of the next decade. He is of 
German ancestry and birth, having been born at Fehrman, Ger- 
many, on June 19, 1878, where his mother had gone for her health. 
His parents. Urban and Gertrude (Menzel) Woelfle, were German, 
though citizens of the United States and residents in Orange, New 
Jersey, where Mr. Woelfle was a hat manufacturer and in business 
until his death in September, 1904- 

Dr. Woelfle has passed his entire life as a citizen of New Jer- 
sey, spending his childhood and earlier years in Orange, where he 
received his primary education. He then attended the Newark 
High School until 1898, when he entered the medical school of 
Cornell LIniversity, having a strong inclination toward making medi- 
cine his profession in life. He was an excellent student, and after 
the regular four years' course was graduated in 1902 with the 
degree of M. D. While In college he was popular among his class- 
mates, and being of social disposition, was a member of the Greek 
letter fraternity. Alpha Kappa Kappa, of the Cornell Medical Club, 
and of other student bodies. 

After his graduation. Dr. Woelfle served his interneship at 
Christ Hospital, and having thus acquired the necessary experience, 
entered upon the general practice of his profession in which he has 
ever since been engaged with so much success and distinction. He 
has served for a period of five years as surgeon on the staff of the 
outdoor patient department of Christ Hospital, where his work 
reflected upon him an unusual amount of credit; since the expiration 
of his services here, he was appointed surgeon at City Hospital 



IMOGRAi'lllCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 281 



where he continues in the same line of work and with equal satis- 
tactoriness. 

In his professional capacity Dr. Woelfle is connected with a 
number of associations and institutions, and is a member of the lead- 
ing medical organizations of the State; belonging to the Hudson 
Count)', New Jersey State, and American Medical societies. He is 
also a member of the Practitioners' Club of Jersey City, and stands 
very high in the esteem and confidence of his brothers in the pro- 
fession. His practice is a constantly widening one and bids fair to 
bringing him in the next few years an enviable reputation. 

Beside his professional associations Dr. Woeltle is interested in 
many other important matters of social and ci\ic character; and is 
an enthusiastic automobilist, belonging to the Jersey City Auto 
Club. I le belongs also to the Carteret Club of Jersey City, and is 
a .Mason in high standing. He is a great student and exceedingly 
lond of literature, having a splendid library of his own which 
embraces both medical and general subjects; here much of his spare 
time is passed in reading and acquiring further knowledge in his 
profession as well as in the general culti\ation of his unusual intel- 
lect. 

In politics he is a member of the Republican party; and he has 
served on the Board of Health for a period of four years through 
the appointment of the mayor. Otto H. Wittpenn. Dr. Woelfle is 
a man of family, having married Miss Anna D. Williams, daughter 
of A. Ford Williams, of Chatham Centre, New York; and has two 
daughters, Gertrude and Fvelyn. 



EARLE L. CREVELING, M. D. 



AS one of the rising young physicians of this city, perhaps none 
stands higher in the public estimation than Dr. Earle L. 
Creveling, who though not yet thirty years of age, has made for 
himself a name in this section of the community that might well be 
the envy of many a longer established practitioner. 

Dr. Creveling is a native of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where 
he was born on October 9. i 886; he is the son of William E. Crevel- 
ing, his mother having been a Miss Lucretia Crotzley before her 
marriage. After receiving a good fundamental education in the 
schools of Phillipsburg, he attended the High School there from 
which he was graduated in the year 1904. Giving his attention to 
the study of medicine which he purposed to make his profession in 
life, Dr. Creveling then entered the New York Homeopathic Med- 
ical College, from which he was graduated in 1909 with the degree 
of M. D. 

During the last two years of his medical course he was attached 
to the medical and surgical dispensaries of Flower Hospital, from 
which he gathered much valuable experience, continuing with them 
for some time also subsequent to his graduation. He then became 
connected with the Blackwell's Island Clinic and with the Clinic of 
Cumberland Street, Brooklyn, both of which contributed to his 
store of valuable information and aided him materially in reaching 
the goal of his ambition. 

He then became house surgeon in the Hahnemann Hospital, in 
New York City, remaining there for the following eighteen months; 
after which he occupied the same position for nine months in St. 
Mary's Hospital, Passaic, New Jersey. In the year 191 2 he took a 
post-graduate course in the Hahnemann Medical College and Hos- 
pital in Philadelphia, in order to perfect himself along special lines; 
and at the expiration of this course located in Jersey City, where 



i;iOc;RAl'lllCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 283 

he entered at once upon the general practice of his profession. He 
has continued here ever since, building up an extensive and lucrative 
practice, and becoming one of the best known and most highly 
regarded practitioners in this locality. 

Dr. Creveling continues his interest in his roriner associations, 
and is a member of various alumni societies of colleges and hospitals. 
He was always extremely popular with his fellow laborers and 
students, and is ex-vice-president of the Phi Alpha Gamma college 
fraternity. He is a member of the Hahnemanian Society and of the 
Machaon Club. In all out-of-door exercises Dr. Creveling is keenly 
interested, and is a member of the New Jersey Motor Club, being 
one of its most prominent representatives. He is also a Mason in 
high standing, belonging to the Amity Lodge, V. and A. .M., of 
Jersey City, in which he holds chairs. In politics he is an Inde- 
pendent, lending his influence always in favor of the candidate for 
office whom he esteems the most fitting representative of the interests 
of the people at large. 

Dr. Creveling is a man of family, having married Miss Bertha 
Thomas, of Jersey City; they are the parents of three interesting 
children, Lucretia, William and Earle Creveling, and have a pleas- 
ant home at Xo. 917 Bergen avenue, Jersey City, where they dis- 
pense a delightful hospitality. 



CHARLES BERNAR]) PAUL KELLEY, M. D. 



AMONG the rising young physicians of Jersey City, one of the 
most active and influential along many lines, is Dr. Charles 
B. P. Kelley, who was born in this city, March 27, 1886, and has 
the interest of the locality of which he is thus a native very strongly 
at heart. He is the son of James Kelley, of this place, his mother 
having been a Miss Mary Morris prior to her marriage. 

Dr. Kelley, who is now only in his twenty-eighth year, received 
his general education in the schools of Jersey City, finishing at the 
High School where his studies were pursued with very gratifying 
results. He then turned his attention to the study of medicine for 
which he had a marked inclination; and after passing through the 
New York Preparatory School, entered the Medical College nf New 
York University, from which he was graduated in the year 1909, 
having conferred upon him the degree of M. D. 

After his graduation at the University, Dr. Kelley entered the 
Jersey City Hospital as interne, serving there for a period of 
eighteen months and acquiring a most valuable and beneficial experi- 
ence. He then entered upon the practice of his profession in his 
native city, and is now physician for the contagious wards of Jersey 
City Hospital, and surgeon to the surgical clinics, and his sphere of 
usefulness is rapidly widening. He possesses an immense amount of 
energy and ambition, and covers a unique field of endeavor, and he 
has filled the responsible post of Medical Examiner for the Colonial 
Life Insurance Company of Jersey City for several years. He is a 
member of the Alumni Associations of New York University and 
Jersey City Hospital, and belongs to the Hudson County, New 
Jersey State, and American Medical associations. 

Dr. Kelley is prominent also in business circles in this city, 
being a stockholder in the Five Corners Building and Loan Asso- 
ciation. He is a member of the Order of the Knights of Columbus, 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 285 



of the Foresters ot' America, aiul of the Koyal Arcanuin, in all of 
which his standing is of the hij^hest. 1 le is a devout church member, 
being a communicant of St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church and is 
ver)' active in the Holy Name Society. In April, 19 13, he was 
married to Miss .\nna Hit/,, a daughter of Theophile and Elizabeth 
Hitz, prominent in the social circles of Paterson, New Jersey, of 
which city Mrs. Kelley is a native. Dr. and Mrs. Kelley are estab- 
lished in a very comfortable and pleasant home in Jersey City, and 
they are the center of a circle of very warm and sincere friends who 
have a high estimate of the doctor's valuable work in the coniinuiiity. 






JAMES AUGUSTUS WEBB 



JAMES AUGUSTUS WEBB, a prominent resident of Madison, 
New Jersey, and one who promoted the best interests of the 
community in every way, was born February 3, 1830, in Norwich, 
Chenango county, New York, son of Augustus Van Horn and 
Phoebe (Baker) Webb, of New York City. He died suddenly in 
New York City on October 29, 19 10. Elis ancestry dates from 
colonial times, when Orange Webb, a leading shipowner and mer- 
chant in New York City, resided at No. 19 Maiden Lane, opposite 
Little Green street, now Liberty street. He attended and was an 
elder in the old Brick church at the corner of Nassau and Beekman 
streets. He married and among his children was Augustus Van 
Horn, who received his education and began his business career in 
New York City. He removed to Norwich, New York, in 1830, 
to engage in manufacturing woolen goods. From his father he 
inherited considerable inventive genius, which trait led to his inven- 
tion of a fluid and lamp for lighting purposes, a substitute for the 
candles and whale-oil, then in general use for illuminating. After 
his return to New York City in 1836 he invented "Camphene," and 
also designed a lamp which became of world-wide reputation under 
the name "Webb's burner." His successful career as manufacturer 
of these no\'el lamps led to his establishing agencies in various cities 
of the United States, while his central office was at No. 418 Broad- 
way, northeast corner of Canal street. The fortune accumulated in 
this business was later largely lost through financial reverses. He 
retired from business and died at a ripe old age, honored and beloved 
by all who knew him. 

James A. Webb received an elementary education at the acad- 
emy of Barry & Lockwood, No. 41 i Broadway, New York City. 
His business career began in his father's establishment, but was not 
of long duration there. The wholesale dry goods establishment of 



JAM ' "' SWEBB 



JAMEb AUGUSTUS WEBB, a prom: . nt oi Madison, 

New Jersey, and one who promoted the best interests of the 
community in every way, was born February i. 1830, in Norwich, 
Chenango county, New York, son of Augustus Van Horn and 
Phoebe (Baker) Webb, of New York Citv. He died suddenly in 
New York City on October 29, 19 10. His ancestry datts from 
colonial times, when Orange Webb, a leading shipowner a ,•! mer- 
chant in iVc'-v York City, resided at No. 19 Maiden I ane w^.posite 
Little cet: now Liberty street. He atter. <; an 

eldt Hrick church at the corner of Nassa . ^inan 

strc< ' and among his children was Augustus Van 

Her. 'lis education and began his business career in 

Nev • • removed to Norwich, New York 

• c f i-ij-ing woolen goods. From his :„..... ..j 

■: ' ■ ' intive genius, which trait led to his inven- 

or lighting purposes, a substitute for the 

■1 in general use for illuminating. After 

iy in 1836 he invented "Camphene," and 

1 became of world-wide reputation under 

'',\\.bb's ji.ii-..;; "' His successful c;r "^urer 

■vel lamps led ro his establishing ag\ aties 

-'Mtes, while his central office was ac No. 41?, Broad- 

n-r of Crial street. The fortune accumulated in 

■■•: largcl\ !t>sr through financial reverses. He 

ind died nr a ripe old age, honored and beloved 

■ !ved an elementary education at the acad- 

■i. No. 411 Broadway, New York City. 

'is father's establishment, but was not 

holesale dr) goods establishment .-. 





^^/^.. 



mOGRAPMlCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 287 

Messrs. Doremus, Suydam & Nixon was located at the corner of 
Nassau and Liberty streets, opposite the old South Dutch church. 
Entering their employ in August, 1843, he remained until August, 
1848, proving an able and energetic employee. Arnold, South- 
worth & Company, wholesale importers and dealers in fancy goods, 
next offered him a position, and he was their accountant for five 
years. They were anxious to admit him as a partner, but in March, 
1853, he resigned his position, preferring to go into business for 
himself. Following out his father's inventions in the production of 
camphene and alcohol, the younger Webb started a refinery for the 
above-mentioned products, anil for their manufacture into burning 
fluid. His centres of operation were in New York City and Newark, 
New Jersey. In 1855 he opened a store at No. 165 Pearl street, 
in New York, where he carried on the business with great success 
until 1904, a remarkable instance in a city where so many changes 
of business centres occurred in those forty-nine years. 

Mr. Webb's loyalty to the interests of his superiors and faith- 
fulness to his duties, wherever employed, made him in turn an ideal 
employer, ready to reward his employees to the extent of their abil- 
ities, and providing for them when they were unable to continue 
working because of their age or illness. It has been said that "a 
clerk never left his employ to receive better treatment or higher 
compensation, and it often occurred that, when an employe of his 
fount! opportunity to enter business upon his own account, he found 
in Mr. Webb a wise counselor, antl rccei\ed at his hanils substantial 
assistance." 

Among the other interests which attracted such a brilliant and 
public-spirited man as Mr. Webb are social and church organiza- 
tions. As one of the organizers of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of Madison, he did active personal work to make it a 
success among the younger element of the town, and their apprecia- 
tion of his labors in their behalf was shown by their electing him as 
second president. The Presbyterian church claimed Mr. Webb 
as a member all his life, and he was an earnest worker for the 



288 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

advancement of Christianity among men. In the home church he 
was treasurer, and superintendent of the Sunday school for more 
than thirty years. In commemoration of the beautiful life of his 
only son, who died in early manhood, Mr. Webb built a memorial 
chapel in Madison, known as the Webb Memorial Chapel, a fitting 
monument to the upright career and splendid character of the 
younger James A. Webb. 

Personally Mr. Webb developed interests in as many directions 
as the community afforded. He was a director and vice-president 
of the First National Bank of Madison; was one of the organizers 
and directors of the Morristown Trust Company, a director of the 
Safe Deposit Company of Morristown; a member of the Washing- 
ton Association of Morris county; and connected with several bank- 
ing and trust institutions in New York City, as well as other large 
manufacturing concerns of the same place. James A. Webb was a 
Republican, and a Harrison elector in 1892. He was appointed 
commissioner of appeals of Madison and Chatham townships, and 
for more than a quarter of a century served in that capacity. 

His identification with all the interests of Madison and its 
formation as a borough, led to his connection with the founding of 
a first-class water-works system for the city, and the installation of 
an electric lighting plant of the best variety. He then endeavored to 
secure, and was successful in the attempt to establish, a metallic- 
circuit telephone exchange, which is now enjoyed by all the progres- 
sive citizens of Madison. Mr. Webb was a large holder of local 
property, and his own residence, located in the midst of ample 
grounds, at Woodland road and Prospect street, not only has a beau- 
tiful view of the surrounding country, but is one of the attractive 
landmarks of Madison. Not alone in his home town, but in New 
York and even in the capital city, Washington, Mr. Webb was a 
prominent factor in social and business life. His life in Madison 
began in 1862, when he gave up his residence in New York City. 

Mr. Webb married, in Madison, in 1852, Margaretta Baker, 
daughter of Jacob and Anna Maria (Rrittin) Baker, a native of 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 289 

Westfield, New Jersey. Their children were: i. Ella Cebra, bom 
March 12, 1856; educated at Vassar College; married Edward 
Packard Holden, of Madison, who for thirty-four years has been 
connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of New York 
City, and is now its cashier. Children: Margaretta Webb, born 
July 12, 1880; Eleanor Sanford, born March 12, 1882; Edward 
Packard Jr., born January 9, 1884; and Elizabeth Cebra, born De- 
cember 3, 1885. 2. James Augustus Jr., born July 11, 1859, in 
New York City, died April 6, 1887; graduated at Princeton Col- 
lege, with high honors, with the class of 1 88 1. During his vacations, 
he spent much time in his father's office, and at the end of his col- 
lege course became corresponding clerk. He was admitted as a 
partner in 1884, the business taking the name of James A. Webb & 
Son. His character in every way promised a remarkable career. In 
his college days he was extremely popular, and in business displayed 
energv, enterprise and discretion; he was a young man of broad 
humanitarian principles and sympathy, actively interested in church 
and philanthropic work and unusually gifted with musical ability. 
His death was keenly felt in every walk of life, and the chapel which 
his father erected to his memory, was indeed a fitting testimonial to 
his character. He married, in December, 1885, Nellie Sanford, 
daughter of David S. and Ellen (Mc(iregory) Packard. 

NC-19 



JOSEPH STILZ 



BY far one of the most promising young business men of West 
New York is Joseph Stilz, a leading real estate and insurance 
dealer, who has his offices on Bergenline avenue, where he has been 
established for the last five or six years. He is a native of Paterson, 
New Jersey, where he was born on February 4, 1878; and is the son 
of the late Edward Peter Stilz, who was for thirty years prior to his 
death a wholesale floral supply dealer in West New York. 

Joseph Stilz was educated primarily in the public schools of his 
vicinity, after which he attended Town of Union High School, from 
which he was graduated in the year 1895. He then for awhile and 
at the conclusion of his studies here placed himself under private 
instruction in a general business course which included such branches 
as banking, commercial lav,-, etc. When he felt that he had thor- 
oughly mastered these subjects, he associated himself with his father 
for a few years in West New York and assisted him in his floral 
supply business. He continued thus until 1907, when he decided to 
go Into business on his own account, ant! launching into the field 
of real estate and insurance, opened up his offices in West New York. 
He has ever since been actively and extensively engaged along these 
and similar lines, and has met with remarkable success in his endeav- 
ors. He has developed a number of small subdivisions and writes 
fire insurance through leading companies, having gaineil the confi- 
dence and respect of the community in which he is fast becoming a 
power. 

Mr. Stilz is now a member of the North Hudson Board of 
Trade, his influence being very strong in its counsels; and he has 
been a director since its organization of the Weehawken Trust Com- 
pany, in which his influence from the beginning has been very strong. 
He is very prominent in politics, being a member of the Democratic 
party; and was for a number of years on the Executive Committee of 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 291 

the town's Democracy. He has also served on several campaign 
committees, having acted as treasurer on various occasions. 

In the year 1910 he was elected member of the West New York 
Board of Education, on which he served with conspicuous success 
and benefit to the interests in\olved, so that in I-cbruary, 19 13, he 
became president. His actively beneficial influence along educational 
lines and in all matters related thereto has been very marked in the 
city. On Januan,' i, 1908, he was elected City Treasurer, and is 
still in possession of this office by virtue of successive elections. 
He served on the celebrated "Beef Trust Grand Jun" of Hudson 
county, in 19 10; and is a member of various organizations, political 
and otherwise, among which is the Turn Verein. The outlook for 
his political and civic advancement is a very prominent one, and there 
are few who have so well acquitted themselves in various important 
fields. He is one of the most ambitious and enterprising citizens of 
West New York, clean and upright in business an<l political dealings, 
and well deserving of the respect and esteem which he universally 
commands. 

Mr. Stilz is also interested in literature and art, and is himself 
something of a student. He is popular and well liked in society and 
has a host of friends in all walks of life. He is as yet unmarried. 



GEORGE EPPS CANNON, M. D. 



DR. GEORGE EPPS CANNON, one of the most eminent phy- 
sicians of this State and for the past ten years an active prac- 
titioner of Jersey City, is a Southerner by birth and a descendant of 
an old South Carolinian family. He was bom at Carlisle, South 
Carolina, on July 7, 1869; and is the son of Mr. B. G. Cannon, a 
farmer of that State. 

Dr. Cannon was educated primarily in the public schools of the 
locality, attending various preparatory schools, and finally after 
receiving the foundation of a good general education, was admitted 
to Lincoln University. Here he completed the full four years' 
curriculum, and was graduated in 1893 with the degree of A. B. 
While a student at the University, he was active in various college 
organizations, and was not only popular with his associates in daily 
and social life, but distinguished himself by his application to his 
studies. After his gra^uati^n it ibe University, Dr. Cannon turned 
his attention to the study of medicine with a view to making it his 
profession in life. In 1896 he entered the New York Homoeopathic 
College, in New York City, and after the four years' course was 
graduated in 1900 with the degree of M. D. He served his interne- 
ship at the Flower Hospital and at the Metropolitan Hospital on 
Blackwell's Island; after which he duly entered upon the practice of 
his profession in Jersey City. 

Dr. Cannon has proved a rarely successful and skillful prac- 
titioner, commanding not only the regard and admiration of those 
by whom he has been immediately surrounded, but of the entire com- 
munity as well, and becoming influential in professional circles 
throughout the entire State. He was for six years chairman of the 
Executive Board of the National Medical Association, and was 
president of the Lincoln University Alumni Association, second term. 
He is now president of the Northern New Jersey Medical Society, 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 293 

and a member in high standing of the New Jersey Homa'opathic 
Society. 

Dr. Cannon takes a strong and controlling interest in the public 
and political affairs of the State as well as in medical matters. He 
has been prominently identified with the Progressive movement In 
politics in Hudson county, and in the year 19 12 was appointed dele- 
gate to Asbury Park State Convention. He was also a delegate to 
the Chicago National Convention in August, 19 12, and there served 
as New Jersey member of the Committee on Credentials; he was 
nominated as presidential elector on the State ticket in 19 12. He 
has been president of the Committee of One Hundred, of Hudson 
County, New Jersey, ever since the organization of that committee, 
and his services have been of great value in connection with it. 

In fraternal and Masonic matters Dr. Cannon is deeply inter- 
ested and continues to be extremely influential. He is a member of 
the Masons of King Solomon's Lodge, of the Hudson Lodge L O. 
O. F., and has passed through all of the chairs of I'lkdom. He is a 
devout church member, and active officially and otherwise in the 
Lafayette Presbyterian Church to which he belongs. He is a man of 
family, having married, in 1901, Miss Genevieve Wilkinson, of 
Washington, D. C, by whom he has two children : George and 
Gladys Cannon. Dr. and Mrs. Cannon with their charming little 
family, have a delightful home at No. 354 Pacific avenue. Jersey 
City. 



WILLIAM MAYER JR. 



WILLIAM MAYER JR., one of the leading architects in this 
section of Hudson county, New Jersey, is probably the 
youngest holder of a State license that has ever been granted in this 
State; he is now only in his twenty-fifth year and has been in the 
full practice of his profession for over four years. 

Mr. Mayer was born in New York City on October lo, 1888, 
being the son of William Mayer, a carpenter and professional poli- 
tician, who has had an office in West New York for the past twenty- 
four years; he is now a councilman in the Second Ward. Young 
Mayer received his education in the public schools, graduating from 
grammar school with honors in 1903. He then took a four-year 
course in architecture in the evening schools of New York City, com- 
pleting these special studies in 1907; for the first two of these years 
he was associated in business with his father, acquiring a practical 
knowledge of building. For the last two years of this period he 
was employed in the office of C. A. Gifford, State Architect of New 
Jersey, in the capacity of junior draughtsman. He then took 
another special course in the evening schools in order to perfect 
his knowledge of mathematics and English, and to acquire a 
thorough acquaintance with the subjects of heating and ventilation. 
At the expiration of these studies he entered the employ of Fuller 
& Warren, heating and ventilating engineers, and remained with 
them for a period of ten months. He then became chief draughts- 
man of the Mutual Engineering and Construction Company, of New 
York City, continuing with them for a year, and resigning in order 
to pass the entrance examinations to a two-year day course in archi- 
tecture at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. 

During this time he was also engaged in a special course of the 
International Correspondence Schools. In 191 1 he received his 
diploma from Pratt Institute, having already been licensed as archi- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 295 



tect in New Jersey, being one of the most youthful recipients of such 
a license in the State, if not indeed the very youngest. After his 
graduation at Pratt's Institute, he immediately went into business on 
his own account, opening his present offices in West New York and 
now having a very extensive and continuously increasing patronage. 
In the last two years he has turned out some two hundred and fifty 
completed plans of residences, apartments, business blocks, and 
factories, which have been erected in Hudson and Bergen counties. 

He has attained a considerable prominence in the business com- 
munity, and is a member of many clubs and organizations in con- 
nection with his profession and with business and social matters, 
for his interests are ver)' wide and varied and he brings close atten- 
tion to whatever subjects concern him. He is a member of the Ameri- 
can Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers, and of the New 
Jersey State Board of Architects, being a director of the Guttenberg 
Building and Loan Association and of the West New York Building 
and Loan Association. He is also a member of the North Hudson 
Board of Trade and of the Thirteenth Street Social Club, and having 
been an organizer of the West New York Grammar School Alumni 
Association, is now president of that body, as well as being a member 
of the Pratt Institute Alumni Association. He belongs to the 
Hoboken Elks, No. 74, and to the Trinity Reformed Church Broth- 
erhood Club. 

Outside of business, baseball is his hobby, and he was for four 
years manager of the North Hudson Baseball Club. In politics he 
is an ardent Democrat, as is also his father who is a well known 
office holder and politician. Mr. Mayer is married to Miss Hazel 
Ruth Curry, daughter of James Curry, of Hudson Heights, New 
Jersey. 



JOEL WOOLSEY BROWN 



CAPTAIN JOEL WOOLSEY BROWN, well known through 
his successful shipyard operations, and whose sudden death 
occurred November 22, 1912, was one of the most prominent as well 
as universally esteemed and beloved citizens of Jersey City. He was 
born December 18, 1836, at Rocky Point, Long Island, son of Isaac 
W. and Charry (Yarrington) Brown, the former of whom was a 
sea captain until 1833, and afterward a farmer at Rocky Point, 
where he was born February 22, 1799, died November 15, 1868. 

Captain Joel W. Brown lived during the era that saw the 
greatest development of this country and it can be truthfully said that 
he contributed his full share toward the furtherance of such advance- 
ment. His education was begun in the public schools of his neigh- 
borhood, which he attended until twelve years of age, then continued 
in the Millers Place Academy, after which he took a course in Fort 
Plain Seminary, at Fort Plain, Montgomery county. New York, 
finishing there in the spring of 1855. He began what is usually 
termed "his active career," the period of a man's life when he takes 
his place in the world as a worker and a thinker, by teaching school 
at Millers Place, but this to a person of his temperament apparently 
was not strenuous enough. In the spring of 1856 he went to 
Omaha, Nebraska, then considered "far west," having bought a 
team and wagon at Rock Island, Illinois, with which he covered the 
distance across the State of Iowa, this being before the days of rapid 
transit and railroads. He remained in Omaha until the fall of 1857, 
when he returned east, crossing the State of Iowa with the same 
means of conveyance as he had used when going west. It was in 
1858 that Mr. Brown entered upon the work that proved to be his 
vocation, for in the fall of that year he shipped before the mast on 
the sloop "Samuel Hall," following this in 1859 by a period of serv- 
ice on the schooner "General Marion." In the latter part of 1859 




^^^i ^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 297 

he became interested in this line of business on his own account, 
and became by purchase part owner and captain of the schooner 
"Ovoca." This interest he sold in Baltimore, in October, 1863, and 
on November 26, following, bought the schooner "Julia E. Pratt," 
which was a well known coastwise vessel during his ownership and 
captaincy. After selling the "Julia L. Pratt" in i 867, he bought and 
sailed the schooner "Edward Slade." In i868 Captain Brown 
retired from life on the sea but continued his connection therewith 
by the purchase of a ship chandler store at Newburgh, New York; 
after two years in this line he purchased a one-half interest in the 
drydock and shipyard of Adam Bulman at Newburgh, the firm name 
becoming Bulman & Brown. During this partnership they built the 
schooners "Hannah E. Brown," "George W. Anderson," "Porter C. 
Shultz," "Henry P. Havens;" the steamer "Marion;" propellers, 
"George Garlick," "H. C. Cheeny," "Manhattan," ami numerous 
other craft including ice and brick barges. 

In 1879 Captain Brown came to Jersey City and became owner 
of a shipvard which soon grew to be one of the largest on the Jersey 
City waterfront. That was in the days before the railroads crowded 
out this industry from the waterfront at this place and bought out 
one shipyard after another to give the railroads more room. Few 
residents not in public office were better known than Captain Brown, 
who ever after making his home in Jersey City contributed liberally 
to the upbuilding of the place of his adoption. He was a member 
of the Board of Trade of Jersey City, and was a stockholder and 
director in the Lincoln Trust Company from its organization until 
his death. He was a prominent member of the New York Maritime 
Exchange, where he was a well known figure and had a wide 
acquaintance among shipping men. He was a member of the Marine 
Society, the oldest but one of the organized societies of New York, 
and in which he acted on the standing committee. 

In politics Captain Brown was in early life a Republican, but 
in 1884 became convinced that the evils of the liquor traffic could 
be best overcome and temperance promoted through the agency of a 



298 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

political party, and he willingly allowed his name to be used as a 
candidate of the Prohibition party in various campaigns. He was 
nominated in succession for the offices of Sheriff of Hudson county, 
Mayor of Jersey City, State Senator, and finally for Governor of 
New Jersey. He was a delegate to every National Convention 
of his party from 1884, and at the time of his death was a member 
of the platform committee of the Prohibition party. 

In 1909 Captain Brown retired from active business life but 
retained a financial interest in the shipyard. In 1880 he became 
identified with the Bergen Reformed Church, and thereafter was one 
of the most active members. He was elected elder and held this 
position (for over thirty years) until the time of his death, and 
was also an efficient and helpful member of the Men's Club. Besides 
being a teacher in the Sunday School for over a quarter of a century, 
he was a regular attendant at all the services of the church, and ever 
ready with kindly words of cheer, and when occasion required his 
was a willing voice to offer the prayer of intercession or thanks- 
giving. He was on the board and in the executive committee of the 
Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church in America. At his 
death the unusual and distinctive honor was paid him in that the 
regular services of the Bergen church were omitted on the occasion 
of his funeral, and instead the congregation gathered at his late 
residence and participated in the services there, lead by the Rev. 
Dr. Cornelius Brett. Captain Brown was prominent in Free- 
masonry, having been affiliated with that order since 1861, his mem- 
bership at the time of his death being with Bergen Lodge of Jersey 
City, and Hugh de Pagan Commandery at large. 

He was married at Port Jefferson, Long Island, on December 
19, 1865, to Hattie E. Woodhull, daughter of Samuel Brewster and 
Phoebe Henrietta (Jones) Woodhull. Their children were: i. 
Ella W., born September 26, 1866; married, October 30, 1890, 
Arthur Brigham, son of the Hon. Lewis Alexander Brigham, of 
Jersey City; children: Arthur Jr., horn June 12, 1892; Lula 
Brown, born January 21;, 1898. 2. Lula W., born September 2, 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 299 

1873. 3. Hattie, born October 27, 1885; married, November 12, 
1912, Ripley Watson, son of Dr. William (Perry) Watson, of 
Jersey City. The family have been prominent socially in Jersey 
City for many years, where Captain Brown labored so zealously for 
the advancement of the city's interests. 

It is a strange coincidence that Captain Brown, whose life was 
so intimately associated with the sea, should receive the greatest 
affliction of his life from that agency, bni such was the case. On 
September 21, 1895, his second daughter, Lula W., was drowned in 
the ocean near Manasquan Inlet, while going to the rescue of a small 
boy being caught in an undertow, and swept beyond the reach of help 
until too late. 






PETER F. GHEE, M. D. 



AMONG those who have attained distinct prestige in the prac- 
tice of medicine and surgery in Jersey City, New Jersey, and 
whose success has come as the logical sequence of thorough technical 
information, as enforced by natural predilection and that sympathy 
and tact which are the inevitable concomitants of precedence in the 
profession, the name of Dr. Peter F. Ghee is a well known one. 

Dr. Ghee was born in Boydton, Virginia, May 5, 1871, and is a 
son of Peter Ghee, a farmer. His preliminary education was 
obtained in the public schools of his native town, and he was grad- 
uated from the Boydton Institute in the class of 1891. He then 
matriculated at Shaw University, from which, having taken an elec- 
tive course instead of the regular one, he could not obtain his Bach- 
elor of Arts degree when he was graduated in 1894. He next 
entered the Leonard Medical College, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1898 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. During his 
senior year at this institution he was engaged in practical work in 
the hospital, and then served an interneship. Upon the conclusion 
of this period he established himself in active practice in Jersey 
City, New Jersey, which has since that time been the principal 
seat of his professional activity. His practice is a large and widely 
extended one, and he has the affection as well as the confidence of his 
patients, for the warm-hearted sympathy always apparent in his 
ministrations. He is a member of the North New Jersey Medical 
Association; the National Medical Association; Hudson Lodge, 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Progressive Lodge, Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks, of Jersey City. In all of these he is 
held in high esteem for his counsels. 

Dr. Ghee married Lucy Boyd, of Washington, District of 
Columbia, and they are the parents of two children. He is fond of 
outdoor sports of all kinds, but finds his chief recreation in automo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 301 

biling, and is a member of the New Jersey Automobile and Motor 
Club. In political matters he affiliates with the Progressive Party 
of Hudson county, and keeps well in touch with the trend of public 
events. The greater part of his spare time is devoted to study and 
research work along the lines of his profession, which appears to be 
of ever-increasing interest to him as the years advance. 



THOMAS C. ARMSTRONG, D. D. S. 



THOMAS C. ARMSTKONCi, D. D. S., was born May 13, 
1887, at Sussex, New Jersey, son of Charles B. and Mar- 
garet L. (Swarts) Armstrong. He was educated in public and high 
schools of Hackensack, New Jersey, and graduated from the New 
York College of Dentistry, 190S. He has been practicing in Union 
Hill, near Jersey City, New Jersey, since 1909. He married Anna 
L. Bowman, of Newton, New Jersey, daughter of George and 
Samantha (Wolf) Bowman. Dr. Armstrong is a member of the 
Automobile Club of America, the State Dental Society, Mystic Tie, 
No. 123, P>ee and Accepted Masons, Psi Omega dental fraternity, 
and the Dutch Reformed Church of Union Hill, New Jersey. 



WILLIAM WALLACE MAVER, M. D. 



AMONG the younger physicians of Jersey City possibly none is 
in better standing than Dr. W. W. Maver, and none has 
before him the prospect of a more brilliant future. The son of a 
distinguished electrical engineer and author of a number of works 
on the subject of telegraphy, Mr. Maver is himself a scientist of 
brilliant achievement and an authoritative writer upon the subjects 
which have received his best attention and patient investigation. 

William Maver, the Doctor's father, is consulting electrical 
engineer for the Consolidated Gas Company, of New York City, the 
Metropolitan Railway Company, of the same city, and a number of 
other corporations. He is an authority on the subjects with which his 
life work has been connected, and was the author of "American 
Telegraphy," "Wireless Telegraphy," and other professional works. 
He is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers of 
America, and contributed largely to the benefit of that institution. 

Dr. William Wallace Maver, the distinguished son of this dis- 
tinguished father, was born in Jersey City, on August 12, 1886. He 
was educated primarily in the local public schools, completing his 
general studies at Hasbrouck Institute. He then turned his attention 
to the study of medicine, and entered the Long Island Hospital 
College, being graduated therefrom in the class of 1909 and receiv- 
ing his degree of M. D. After his graduation he spent a year as 
interne of the City Hospital, Jersey City, improving his knowledge 
in his chosen profession and gaining valuable experience. At the 
expiration of this time he entered upon the general practice of medi- 
cine in Jersey City with a constantly widening field of work. He 
holds the appointment of Medical Inspector of the Jersey City 
Schools and in the discharge of the duties of this office which he has 
held for some time, has done some very valuable work in the inter- 
ests of the community. He is a member of the leading medical 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 303 

societies of New Jersey, his name being enrolled with the Hudson 
County, State, and American Medical Associations. He holds mem- 
bership also in the Alumni Associations of Hasbrouck Institute and 
Medical College. Dr. Maver has made a special study of X-Ray 
work, in which he has attained a considerable amount of efficiency, 
with the result that his services along this line are retained by the 
New Jersey Public Service Corporation and other important civic 
bodies. He is assistant radiographist to the City Hospital, and 
attending physician to the medical clinics of Christ Hospital. Dr. 
Maver has also contributed some very valuable articles to the 
medical journals and other publications. 

Aside from his professional interests, he takes an active part in 
the life of the community in many ways, and is ardent believer in 
out of door sports and recreations. He is an enthusiastic automo- 
bilist, and is a member of the .'\merican Automobile Association. 
He belongs also to a number of the fraternal bodies and has promi- 
nent membership in the Knights, Maccabees and Scottish Clans. In 
politics he is an Independent, casting his vote always in favor of the 
candidate whom he deems the best man for the office. Dr. Maver is 
as yet quite a voung man, being only twenty-se\'en years of age, 
and is unmarried. 



WILLIAM DE LORENZO 



THE man of merit and distinction who by his own efforts has 
attained a prominent position in professional circles, and 
who is certainly deserving of biographic honors, and as such we 
present William De Lorenzo, an attorney of Hackensack, New Jer- 
sey. 

Mr. De Lorenzo was born at Serino, Italy, December 28, 1886, 
and is a son of Alessio De Lorenzo, who came to America in 1886 
and to Hackensack in 1897. Practically the entire life of Mr. De 
Lorenzo has been spent in this country, as he was only a boy when 
he was brought to this country. He was educated in the public 
schools of Hackensack, and was graduated from the Hackensack 
High School in 1906. He at once became a student at the New 
York Law School, from which he was graduated in June, 1909, 
and was at once admitted to the New Jersey Bar. In June, 1912, he 
was admitted as counsellor. During the last five years ol his life as 
a student, he had taught in the evening schools, and has never lost 
the deep and abiding interest he took in all matters connected with 
education. Since 191 1 he has been an influential member of the 
Hackensack Board of Education, and is now serving as chairman of 
the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Considering the fact that it 
is but a very few years since his degree as Bachelor of Laws was con- 
ferred upon him, he has a very considerable practice, and this is 
constantly increasing, as his successful conduct of cases is becoming 
known. Some of the cases with which he has been connected have 
been of importance throughout the State. He is a member of the 
Union League Club of Hackensack; the Hackensack Field Club; 
Order of the Moose; and is an Odd Fellow. Mr. De Lorenzo Is 
actively interested in civic and educational affairs. In 191 1 he mar- 
ried Miss Lucy Zisak, of Hackensack, and they have one daughter, 
Beatrice. 



DeWITT van BUSKIRK, the subject of this sketch, is a 
descendant of the Van Buskirlc family, prominent in Bergen 
Neck, now City of Bayonne, in the early days of the colonies. His 
father, Nicholas C Van Buskirk, who was a farmer, married Eliza- 
beth Vreelam!, u member of another prominent family in Hudson 
county. 

DfWitt. \'an Buskirk was bom in what is now the city of Bay- 
onne, thvn Thp t')wnship of South Bergen, Hudson county, New 
Jerst.''' aduated from the Bayonne public schools, from 

the I gh school in 1877, ;md from Columbia Law 

St;K . He wab admitted to the bar in New York in 1880 

an.. , . fhere about two years; was admitted as attorney-at- 

law 1'. \c;-. j.-Tsey in February, 188 1, and as counsellor-at-law in 
• - 'ed special master in chancery of New Jersey by 

He continued to read law under Cortlandt 
i sewark, New Jersey, and was managing clerk of the 
Cortlandt & Wayne Parker until 1885, when he com- 
racticing law in Bayonne. In 1890 Mr. Van Buskirk and 
"nrles W. Parker entered into partnership under the style 
irk & Parker, and the firm was continued until Judge 
. ievated to the bench as circuit court judge in iqoo. 
It time Mr. Van Buskirk has practiced alone, and has 
Jersey City and Bayonne. 
.^^ 1 ciri/cn interested in the financial welfare of Bayonne, Mr. 
' ' - !^ was one of the organizers of the Mechanics* Trust 
! is at present the president of the company. He is 
.-, I, 1^"^ sident of the Perth Amboy Trust Company, and vice- 
T>fesident of the Bank of South Hudson. He is a member of the 
Club of New York, and of the Drug and Chemical Club 




f^iMici- ^ aI'M]^ 



DEWITT VAN BUSKIRK 



DeWITT van BUSKIRK, the subject ot this sketch, is a 
descendant of the Van Buskirk family, prominent in Bergen 
Neck, now City of Bayonne, in the early days of the colonies. His 
father, Nicholas C. Van Buskirk, who was a farmer, married Eliza- 
beth Vreeland, a member of another prominent family in Hudson 
county. 

DeWitt Van Buskirk was born in what is now the city of Bay- 
onne, then the township of South Bergen, Hudson county. New 
Jersey. He was graduated from the Bayonne public schools, from 
the Jersey City high school in 1877, and from Columbia Law 
School in 1880. He was admitted to the bar in New York in 1880 
and practiced there about two years; was admitted as attorney-at- 
law in New Jersey in February, 1881, and as counsellor-at-law in 
1884, and appointed special master in chancery of New Jersey by 
Chancellor Runyon. He continued to read law under Cortlandt 
Parker, of Newark, New Jersey, and was managing clerk of the 
office of Cortlandt & Wayne Parker until 1885, when he com- 
menced practicing law in Bayonne. In 1890 Mr. Van Buskirk and 
Justice Charles W. Parker entered into partnership under the style 
of Van Buskirk & Parker, and the firm was continued until Judge 
Parker was elevated to the bench as circuit court judge in 1900. 
From that time Mr. Van Buskirk has practiced alone, and has 
offices in Jersey City and Bayonne. 

As a citizen interested in the financial welfare of Bayonne, Mr. 
Van Buskirk was one of the organizers of the Mechanics' Tnist 
Company, and is at present the president of the company. He is 
also vice-president of the Perth Amboy Trust Company, and vice- 
president of the Bank of South Hudson. He is a member of the 
Lawyers' Club of New York, and of the Drug and Chemical Club 
Nc— 20 



306 BIOGRAPHICAL E.XCVCLOFEDIA 

of the same city. He is a nieiiiber ot the First KcfomieJ Church of 
Bayonne. 

On April 24, 1889, at Bay(;r.ne, Mr. Van Buskirk married 
Florence, daughter of John Edward and Mary Smith. He has one 
child, DeWitt, Junior, who was born September 16, 1901. 



FRANK S. KATZENBACH JR. 



FRANK S. KATZENBACH JR., for two decades actively and 
successfully engaged in a general practice of his profession in 

Trenton, is a native of that city, born November 5, 186S, son of 
Frank S. and August (Mushbach) Katzenbach. 

His early education was obtained by attendance at the State 
Model School at Trenton, from which he was graduated in 1885. 
He graduated from Princeton in 1889, and prepared for the profes- 
sion of the law at the Columbia Law School and in the offices of 
James Buchanan and Carroll Robbins in the city of Trenton. He 
was admitted as an attorney at the New Jersey bar in November, 
1892, and as a counsellor in November, 1895. Since his admission 
to the bar he has conducted a general law practice in his native city, 
where he is universally recognized as an able, careful and conscien- 
tious lawyer. 



NATHANIEL J. SHAPIRO. M. D. 



ADVANCEMEN T in any of the learned professions is not so 
much the result of fortuitous circumstances or of influence, 
as it is the result of individual merit, appliiation and skill. When 
these are combined with ambition and a tixed determination to 
achieve success, the desired result is inevitable. Dr. Nathaniel J. 
Shapiro, of West Hoboken, New Jersey, although ynung to have 
achieved a reputation in this most difficult of all professions, is 
fairly on the way to acquiring more than local fame. 

His father, Saul J. Shapiro, was a native of Russia, who estab- 
lished himself in the dry goods business in Brooklyn, New York, in 
1878, and was prominently identified with business matters until his 
death, February 5, 1909. He was prominent in the religious cir- 
cles of Brooklyn for many years, and was a member of: Friends 
of the Children of Israel; Hebrew P'ree School; Free Loan Society; 
and a number of others. He left a widow and six children : Nathan- 
iel J., whose name heads this sketch; Harold P., who was graduated 
from the New York Law School in the class of 1910, and is now 
auditor of the Globe Indemnity Company of New York; Theodore; 
Sarah; Yetta and Jacob J. 

Dr. Nathaniel J. Shapiro was born in Minsk, Russia, July 27, 
1 88 1. From the outset he was educated in a most thorough manner. 
At first he was a student at private schools, then at the Cooper 
Union Institute of New York, and finally the Eclectic Medical Col- 
lege, from which he was graduated in the class of 1907 with the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. After one year's service as an 
interne in the Lying-in Hospital, Dr. Shapiro opened an office for 
the practice of his profession, in Brooklyn, where he reniainetl until 
his later location at No. 141 Palisade avenue, West I loboken. New 
Jersey, where he is still established. He has already a very satis- 
factory practice and it is constantly increasing, and he has the esteem 



308 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

as well as the confidence of his patients. He is a member of the 
New Jersey State, Hudson County, and American Medical socie- 
ties; the American Eclectic Medical Society; and he is visiting physi- 
cian in the Sydenham Hospital and the St. Mary's Hospital, of 
Brooklyn, and Beechanian Dispensary. 

In his political affiliations Dr. Shapiro is independent, prefer- 
ring to form his own opinions on all public matters, rather than be 
tied by party connections. He is a member of the Independent 
Order of Brith Abraham, the Order of Brith Sholom, the New 
Jersey Benefit Society and the Workmen's Circle, and Hebrew 
Free School of Jersey City. He is a director in the United Building 
and Loan Association. 

Dr. Shapiro married Sylvia Kessler, of Brooklyn, and they are 
the parents of two children: Saul and Gladys. Dr. Shapiro is 
possessed of the qualities which are absolutely essential to advance- 
ment, and there is every reason to believe that he will achieve a posi- 
tion in the foremost ranks of his chosen profession. 



5^ 



CORNELIUS KIEL, D. D. S. 



DR. CORNELIUS KIEL, one of the most prominent dentists 
resident in Hoboken, is a practitioner of German descent, 
illustrating by the eminence which he has attained in the community 
the debt which the country owes to its citizens of this ancestry. The 
Doctor was born in Hoboken, August 31, 1856, the son of Cornelius 
Kiel, a native of Rhenish Prussia, who came to this country and set- 
tled in Hoboken in 1848. Mr. Kiel was a manufacturer by occu- 
pation, and became very successful, his business being conducted with 
the customary German thrift and shrewdness. He died in the year 
190;;, possessing the esteem of all who knew him. 

Dr. Kiel received his education in the private schools of Hobo- 
ken, his native city. After acquiring the foundations of a thorough 
English education, he attended the Hoboken Academy and com- 
pleted a course at Packard's Business College. He then turned his 
attention to the study of his present profession and entered the New 
York College of Dentistry. He was graduated from the college in 
1878, receiving the degree of D. D. S., and immediately entered 
upon the practice of his profession in this city. 

The skill which he evinced in his work and the thorough busi- 
ness training which he had received, resulted in success from the 
outset, and he is now in possession of one of the largest practices in 
Hoboken. The Doctor is a member of the New Jersey State Dental 
Society, one of the leading associations of its kind in this country. 
In the year 191 1 he received the appointment which he now holds, 
of Director of the Dental Clinics of the Hoboken public schools, 
this being the first appointment of the kind in the history of the 
State of New Jersey. 

On June 10, 1913, Dr. Kiel was appointed member of the 
State Board of Registration and Examination in Dentistry, succeed- 
ing Dr. Charles A. Meeker, of Newark, who had resigned; the 



310 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

honor coming to Dr. Kiel through the Governor of New Jersey, and 
being utterly unsought and unexpected. The first intimation that 
the Doctor received of his appointment reached him through the 
newspaper reporters, and it is needless to say was in the nature of 
a complete surprise. There is little doubt that the Governor selected 
the right man for the place. 

Dr. Kiel has been active in civic affairs all his life and has lent 
his influence in many beneficial ways to the cause of good govern- 
ment. He distinguished himself by having served five years on the 
Hoboken Board of Education, discharging his duties with great 
efficiency and discretion; during one of these years he served as 
president of the board. For four years he was postmaster of the 
city of Hoboken, receiving his appointment at the hands of Presi- 
dent Harrison; here again discharging his duties with the utmost 
satisfaction to the public at large and the government that installed 
him. It is not too much to say that Dr. Kiel has occupied with dis- 
tinction every ofl'ice and position of trust which has been tendered to 
him, and has done much good in the service of his fellow citizens 
apart from the excellence of his professional career. 

Dr. Kiel is married, his wife having been Miss Nellie Van 
Saun, a daughter of John A. Van Saun and Sophia Van Saun, of 
Hackensack, New Jersey. They have one son, Cornelius J. Kiel, a 
graduate of Hoboken Academy and now in business in New York 
City 




St.f *;.y,r-»«i.'v ^Bro jvy 




H 



WILLIAM W. SMALLEY 



LI AM W. S ' with 

' and manufr" mty, 



,. W'iiisor 

John and 

. was a farmer 

• public schools 

■ his preliminary 

; cours'- in the 

ver- 

.. . ..ugh- 

hc was a 

p;uiy, in New 

i here engaged 

inery bearings. 

■t-, in TQi_^, he 

^ an 

acnt 

K., and is president ol' the 

ance to the Republican 
jong been an active factor. 



/I 



WILLIAM W. SMALLEY 



HON. WILLIAM W. SMALLEY, actively identified with 
industrial and manufacturing interests in Somerset county, 
New Jersey, makes his home at Bound Brook. He is deeply inter- 
ested in community aifairs and his efforts have also been a potent 
element in the business progress of this section of the State. He has 
with ready recognition of opportunity directed his labors into various 
fields wherein he has achieved success, and at the same time has 
promoted a business enterprise that has proved of more than local 
value, largely promoting the commercial activity of the State. In 
November, 191 1, Mr. Smalley was elected Senator from Somerset 
count}-. 

A native of Middlesex county. New Jersey, William Winsor 
Smalley was born December 17, 1850, and he is a son of John and 
Elizabeth (Winsor) Smalley, the former of whom was a farmer 
and later a manufacturer in Somerset county. To the public schools 
of Bound Brook William W. Smalley is indebted for his preliminary 
educational training, which was supplemented with a course in the 
Bound Brook Seminary. He also attended the New York Univer- 
sity Grammar School and Eastman's Business College, at Pough- 
keepsie, New York. For seven years after leaving school he was a 
clerk in the banking house of Henry Clews & Company, in New 
\ ork, and in 1880 he returned to Bound Brook and here engaged 
in the lumber business and in manufacturing machinery bearings. 
During the long intervening years to the present time, in 1913, he 
has accumulated a competency and won renown for himself as an 
honorable and straightforward business man. He is vice-president 
of the First National Bank of Bound Brook, and is president of the 
Board of Trade. 

In politics Mr. Smalley owns allegiance to the Republican 
party, in the local councils of which he has long been an active factor. 



312 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

For two terms he served most creditably as a member of the city 
council of Bound Brook and during the years 1907-08-09-10 he was 
a member of the New Jersey Assembly. In November, 191 1, he 
was further honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office 
of State Senator. In religious matters he is a member of the Con- 
gregational church and in a social way his affiliations are with the 
Middlebrook Country Club and with the Somerset Country Club. 
Mrs. Smalley is a daughter of Lewis D. and Helen (Skillman) 
Cook. Mr. Smalley has two children, Ethel Cook Smalley, born 
November 27, 1883; George Oakley Smalley, born March 8, 1885. 
Mr. and Mrs. Smalley are popular in connection with the best social 
affairs of their home community and are accorded the unqualified 
confidence and esteem of all with whom they have come in contact. 






NEILS BAKKE, D. D. S., L. D. S. 



THE career of Nells Bnkke, D. D. S., L. D. S., of Hoboken, 
New Jersey, has been one of consecutive progress and devel- 
opment, and his prestige as a dental surgeon is cumulative in char- 
acter. He is daily adding to his honor in matters of original 
research and experiment in connection with his professional work, 
and is forging his way forward to a position in the foremost ranks 
of his field of work. 

Born at Telemarken, Norway, August 3, 1884, he is a son 
of Neils Bakke, a sheriff of Arendal, Norway. He was educated 
in the public high schools of his native city, then matriculated at 
the Christiania Dental College, from which he was graduated in the 
class of 1907 with the degree of L. D. S. Two years were then 
spent in England as a student under Dr. F. W. Bradley, of Wisluch, 
after which he returned to Telemarken and commenced the practice 
of his profession, with which he was occupied for a period of one 
and a half years. Coming to America in 1910, he opened dental 
offices in Hoboken, New Jersey, and has been in active practice in 
that city up to the present time. Although he has been here but 
three years, he has a large patronage, and his reputation for careful 
and conscientious work along the most progressive lines is a rapidly 
growing one, and some of his patients come from distant places. 
He is a member of the New Jersey State Dental Society; Norsemen 
Lodge, No. 878, Free and Accepted Masons, of Brooklyn, New 
York; Lief Erickson Lodge, No. 135, Foresters of America, Brook- 
lyn; Norwegian Singing Society, of Brooklyn; vice-president of 
the Hoboken Glee Club. In political matters he entertains inde- 
pendent opinions, and does not allow himself to be bound by party 
ties. Dr. Bakkc is not married. 



WALTER DAVID WEBER. M. D. 



ALTHOUGH not yet twenty-seven years of age, Dr. Walter 
D. Weber has a very extensive practice in West Hoboken, 
where he has succeeded Dr. Oilman in the service of the community 
and in its high regard. Dr. Weber was born in West Hoboken on 
May 26, 1887, being the son of Mr. Charles Weber, a commission 
merchant of New York City, who is still in business in that place. 

He was educated primarily in Jersey City, where he attended 
the grammar schools and afterward the high school there, availing 
himself of all the instruction that could be obtained of his teachers. 
He then entered the Dwight Preparatory School of New York City; 
and turning his attention to the subject of medicine, was admitted in 
1906 as a student to the Bellevue Hospital Medical School, of New 
York City, where he pursued his studies for the following two years. 
Believing then that it would be of decided advantage to him to have 
the benefit of instruction at more than one school, he passed his third 
and fourth years of medical study at the Long Island Hospital Col- 
lege, from which he was duly graduated in 19 10 with the degree of 
M. D. After his graduation he became attached to the out of door 
department of the Lying-in Hospital, in New York City, where he 
served for a term and gathered much useful experience in his pro- 
fession. For the following two years he was associated with Christ 
Hospital, in Jersey City, having received the appointment of house 
physician and surgeon at that institution. At the end of this time 
he succeeded to the practice of Dr. Oilman in West Hoboken, and 
has remained in this city ever since in the active exercise of his 
profession. 

Dr. Weber has been appointed as medical inspector of the city 
schools, and has charge of the Infants' Milk Dispensary of Hobo- 
ken. He has membership in a number of the leading medical socie- 
ties and institutions of the place, belonging to the Hudson County 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 315 

Medical Society, and to the Physicians' and Surgeons' Club of Jersey 
City. He keeps in touch with his old college interests and is a 
member of the Long Island Hospital College Alumni Association, 
and of the Greek letter fraternity. Alpha Kappa Kappa. He is also 
a member of the Alumni Association of Christ Hospital. In politics 
Dr. Weber is a Republican in the matter of national issues, but in 
local politics is independent, casting his vote in favor of the candi- 
date who seems to him best fitted for the office in question. He has 
wide business interests in the city and is a stockholder in the Building 
and Loan Association here. In athletics he takes special delight; 
and is passionately addicted to automobiling, passing his vacations 
in touring and in the enjoyment of the open air at his summer jndge 
in Vermont. 

Dr. Weber is a married man, his wife having been a Miss 
Laura D. Stonebridge, of Fordham, New York. 



ABRAHAM UREVITZ. M. D. 



THE man of merit and distinction who, by his own efforts, has 
attained a prominent position in any circle, and by his per- 
sonal worth commands a high place, is certainly deserving of bio- 
graphic honor, and as such an one we present Dr. Abraham Urevitz, 
of West Hoboken, New Jersey. Especial comment is unnecessary 
as to his high standing in the community In which he has located his 
field of activity, but the outline of his career cannot fail to be of 
interest. 

Born at Gaisin, Russia, December lo, 1886, he is a son of 
Joseph Urevitz, a forestry expert. Until 1901 Dr. Urevitz was a 
student at the Gymnasium of his native town, and in that year he 
came to America, and entering the high school at West Hoboken, 
was graduated from this institution in 1904. He became a member 
of the freshman class at Rutgers College, and in 1905 matriculated 
at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and after two 
years spent in study there, matriculated at the University College of 
Medicine at Richmond, Virginia, from which he was graduated In 
the class of 1909, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. His 
interneship was served at the Relsterstown (Maryland) Jewish Home 
for Consumptives and, after four months spent in laboratory work 
and in the observation section at Randall's Island, New York City, 
he was engaged in professional work for a period of ten months at 
Bellevue Hospital, New York City. One year was then devoted 
to work at St. Gregory's and the Jewish Maternity hospitals, after 
which, in January, 19 12, he established himself as a private general 
practitioner in West Hoboken. Although it Is less than two years 
since that date, his excellent reputation had preceded him, and he has 
a large and steadily Increasing class of patients. He has formed 
connections with many organizations, among them being the fol- 
lowing: The Hudson County, State and American Medical socie- 





/14'0, 



BIOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 317 

ties; Academy of Medicine of Northern New Jersey; West Hoboi<en 
High School and University Medical College of Richmond, Vir- 
ginia, Alumni associations; Veritas Lodge, No. 734, Free and 
Accepted Masons; Jackson Lodge, No. 150, Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows; Independent Order of Brith Abraham; Jewish Benev- 
olent Association of Hudson County, Independent Order of Ahawas 
Israel; Royal Arcanum; Knights of Maccabees; Knights of Pythias; 
Loyal Order of Moose, No. 765. He is independent in his political 
opinions, and was appointed medical inspector of schools in 19 12, 
a position he is still filling at the present time. He is visiting physi- 
cian to the Jewish Maternity Hospital and to the North Hudson 
Hospital, West Hoboken. Broad minded, and with generous ideas, 
Dr. Urevitz gives a goodly portion of his time to assisting the 
foreign element which comes to this country in such large numbers, 
and in connection with this work he is a member of the Immigrant 
Aid Society. Dr. Urevitz is unmarried. 



WALTER F. CIMIOTTI. M. D. 



ALTHOUGH young in years, Dr. Walter F. Cimiotti, a well 
known physician of West Hoboken, New Jersey, has already 
earned a distinction in his professional work, which might well be the 
envy of a much older man. His efforts have been so discerningly 
directed along well defined lines that his may already be called a 
successful life in the true sense of the words. Born in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, July 13, 1877, he is a son of Ferdinand F. Cimiotti, a 
furrier and fur dealer, who is of Italian descent, as the name indi- 
cates. 

Dr. Cimiotti was educated in the public schools of the city of 
New York as far as his preparatory education is concerned, then 
entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New 
York in 1897, ^"d was graduated from this institution with the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1901. The two years immediately 
following his graduation were spent as an interne and chief resident 
physician in St. Mark's Hospital, after which he went to Europe 
in order to pursue a post-graduate course of study at the University 
of Berlin, Germany. At the expiration of one year he returned to 
the city of New York, and spent one year in the Kraeden Bacterio- 
logical Laboratories. Upon the conclusion of this connection he 
went to West Hoboken, New Jersey, establishing himself in private 
practice there, with which he has been actively identified since that 
time. Up to the present time Dr. Cimiotti has not specialized along 
any particular line, and the liberal patronage which has come to 
him attests sufficiently his superior understanding of the principles of 
medicine and his success in applying them to the needs of suffering 
humanity. 

Dr. Cimiotti married Ida Wheeler, of New York City, and 
they have one daughter: Ella. The doctor is a member of a number 
of medical associations, lodges and other organizations. He abso- 



UlOliRAPlllCAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 319 

lutely eschews politics, as he prefers to de\ote all of his time to the 
profession which he has chosen as his life work. His chief form 
of recreation is found on the water, and he is a member of the New 
Jersey Motor Club. His beautiful residence is located at No. 171 
Palisade avenue, where he finds much enjoyment in the fine library 
he has already collected. A great part of the time which he can 
spare from his ever increasing practice is devoted to reading and 
research work, of which he apparently ne\er tires. 






ARTHUR CHAZOTTE STRATFORD 



THE Stratford family is represented in Jersey City, New Jer- 
sey, by the family of the late George Stratford, founder of 
the George Stratford Oakum Company, and is of English origin, 
the direct ancestors of this branch migrated to Ireland, from whence 
they finally came to America. One of these ancestors was Edward 
Stratford, of Nuneaton, county of Warwick, England, 1610-1655; 
Robert Stratford, his son, settled in Baltinglas, Ireland, in 1654; 
John Stratford, grandson of Robert; Baron of Baltinglas, Viscount 
Aldborough of Belan, 1776, Earl of Aldborough, 1777. William 

Stratford, who was a gentleman farmer in Ireland, married 

Furgerson. John Stratford, son of William and (Furger- 

son) Stratford, was born in Ireland in 1781 ; he was a great horse- 
man and married Clare, a daughter of and Ann (Fuller) 

Burnett. 

George, son of John and Clare (Burnett) Stratford, was born 
in Dublin, Ireland, June 16, 1830, and died in Jersey City, New 
Jersey, April 20, 1902. He had little or no help from his parents 
to enable him to establish himself in life, and he came to the United 
States as a young man, without friends or influence, yet made a most 
decided success of life. Difficulties without number were encoun- 
tered and, after many a severe struggle, overcome. Ambitious and 
studious, he tried to overcome the deficiencies of his education by 
attendance at the public night schools, and by a close study of the 
Bible, which, he always maintained, was most helpful in assisting in 
any career. In his native land he had attended the school conducted 
by Dr. Hunter, but had never gone to any college. At the age of 
eighteen years he was serving his apprenticeship in an oakum 
factory, having selected this line of industry for himself. In Jersey 
City he filled minor positions with B. Mills & Sons, and with W. O. 
Davey & Sons, subsequently becoming a partner in each of these 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 321 

concerns. For some time he was in charge of the oakum factor)' in 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard and, in i860, started the oakum factory 
known now as the George Stratford Oakum Company, which is the 
largest in the world. He was a man of many-sided ability and, in 
1876, founded the Jersey City Paper Company, of which he was 
the president until 1902. While he affiliated with the Democratic 
party on general principles, he never allowed himself to be bound by 
partisanship in the matter of casting his vote, but entertained inde- 
pendent ideas upon the subject. For many years he was treasurer, 
vestryman, junior and senior warden in St. John's Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, and he was a very liberal subscriber to charities of 
all kinds. He was a member of the Carteret Club of Jersey City, 
and his favorite forms of recreation were fishing and driving. Mr. 
Stratford married (first), September 7, 1851, Isabella O'Neill, 
who died December 26, 1864; he married (second), December 15, 
1870, Delphine, daughter of Peter S. and Adelaide (Ridley) 
Cha/otte, granddaughter of Pierre Etienne Cha/otte, and of Cap- 
tain John and Amelia (Powers) Ridley, and a descendant of John 
Nethercut, of Cumberland county, England. He had seven children 
by the first marriage and five by the second. Those living at the 
present time are as follows: i. William George, who is vice-presi- 
dent of the George Stratford Oakum Company; 2. Mrs. Clare E. 
Hoe, who married Charles E. Hoe; 3. Mrs. Antoinette D. Pettinos, 
who married George F. Pettinos; 4. Frank Burnett, secretary and 
treasurer George Stratford Oakum Company; secretary and treas- 
urer Franklin Paper Mills Company; treasurer Jersey City Paper 
Company, and was president of the Automobile Club of Hudson 
County three years; 5. Edwin Holbrook, secretary and treasurer 
Trust Company of New Jersey; secretary of the Jersey City Paper 
Company; director George Stratford Oakum Company; and 6. 
Arthur Chazotte, whose name heads this sketch. The Stratford 
arms are: Barry of ten, argent and a/ure, over all a lion rampant, 
gules. Crest: A dexter arm embowed in armour, holding in the 
NC— 21 



322 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

hand, ppr, a scimeter, argent, hilt and pomel or. Motto: f'irtute 
nihil obstcit el annis (Nothing resists valour and arms). 

Arthur Chazotte, son of George and Delphine Antoinette 
(Chazotte) Stratford, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, June 5, 
1880. His education was an excellent and comprehensi\e one, but 
while still at college the death of his father threw the burden of 
business responsibilities upon him. His preparatory education was 
acquired at Hasbrouck Institute, and he then entered Columbia Uni- 
versity, where he took, an academic course. In April, 1902, immedi- 
ately after the death of his father, he assumed the duties of a director 
in the George Stratford Oakum Company, at the end of one year 
became secretary of this corporation, an office he held four years, and 
since March, 1907, has capably filled the responsible office of presi- 
dent, where he has had ample opportunity to demonstrate his execu- 
tive ability. In July, 1906, he organized the Bayside Realty Com- 
pany, of which he has been secretary and treasurer ever since. He 
was president of the Franklin Paper Mills Company, 19 12-13; 
director of the New Jersey Title Guaranty and Trust Company, 
19 1 2-1 3; held a similar office in the West New York Trust Com- 
pany, 1912-13, and is a director of the Rock Plaster Manufacturing 
Company. Among other offices of trust and responsibility he has 
been called upon to fill are the following: First vice-president of 
the Jersey City Board of Trade, 1910-1 1 ; president of the Board of 
Trade, 1911-12-13; trustee of the Citizens' Federation of Fludson 
County, 191 1- 13; one of the organizers of the People's Institute, 
191 1 ; vice-president of the People's Institute, 1912; one of the 
organizers of the Down Town Club, 1909; one of the organizers 
and trustee of the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, 19 12- 
13. Mr. Stratford gives his political allegiance to the Republican 
party, and takes a deep interest in whatever concerns the welfare of 
the community in which he lives. He served as a member of the 
Elisor grand jury of Hudson county, and as a member of the board 
of trustees of the Children's Friend Society of Jersey City. His 
military service consists of three years spent as a member of the 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 323 

Signal Corps, National Guard, State of New Jersey. His member- 
ship in clubs and societies not mentioned above is as follows: Delta 
Kappa Epsilon; Senior Society Nacoms; Lotos Club; Essex County 
Country Club; Columbia University Club; Jersey City Club; Car- 
teret Club; Danforth Tennis Club, of which he was secretary seven 
years; Down Town Club. His religious affiliation is with St. John's 
Protestant Episcopal Church, and Grace Protestant Episcopal 
Church, Greenville. While fond of all forms of outdoor exercise, 
Mr. Stratford finds his chief recreation in tennis, golf and automo- 
biling. 

Mr. Stratford married, June 19, 1907, Helen, daughter of 
Frederick and Emma (Ritter) Lockwood, granddaughter of Fred- 
erick and Olivia (Meeker) Lockwood and of Casper and Eliza 
(Jarvis) Ritter, and a direct descendant of Robert Lockwood, who 
came from England to Watertown in 1630, in Governor Winthrop's 
fleet. They have one child: Helen Lockwood Stratford. This 
sketch cannot have a more fitting conclusion than the opinion 
expressed by Mr. Stratford when asked as to his opinion as to what 
is most helpful to young people in attaining real success in life. He 
holds that the most important considerations are: Fair dealing, 
ambition, devotion to one's work, family and friends, and the realiza- 
tion of individual responsibility for citizenship and government. 



THOMAS JAMES STEWART 



THE old aphorism "that blood will tell" seems to apply with 
peculiar force to the character of Thomas James Stewart, 
of Jersey City, New Jersey. He is descended from an ancient 
Scotch-Irish family that has been noted for several generations 
for rigorous piety and strict religious ideals of life. Accordmg to 
tradition, the Stewarts or Stuarts were originally Scotch Covenanters, 
who fled to Ireland during the seventeenth century to escape religious 
persecutions prevailing in Scotland. They settled in the North of 
Ireland, where the family resided until Robert Stuart or Samuel 
Stewart, a descendant, emigrated to the United States. 

His father was a farmer and horse dealer near Belfast, and 
his mother's maiden name was Jane Shaw. He was bom March 1 1, 
1824, near Belfast, Ireland; was brought up there and learned the 
trade of mechanical engineer; he came to America about 1850 
and settled in New York City, where he remained for several years 
and then removed to West Hoboken, New Jersey, where he lived 
thereafter. On April 22, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Scott s 
Life Guards, other^vise known as the Fourth Regiment of New 
York Volunteers, and served until May 25, 1863,^ when he was 
honorably discharged with his company at New York. He was 
wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 1 1-13, 
1862; he attained the rank of sergeant. He followed his trade in 
Hoboken, New Jersey, and died August 27, 1909, in Jersey City, 
New Jersey. He married Ann Heaney, a native of County Long- 
ford, Ireland, who came to America with her parents about 1853 and 
settled in New York. Her mother's maiden name was Ann Wilson; 
she was born January, 1834, and died February 3, 191 1, and had, 
among other children, a son, of whom see the following. 

Thomas James Stewart, son of Robert or Samuel and Ann 
(Heaney) Stewart or Stuart, was born November 23, 1856, at the 



^ 



THO:. 



STEWART 



^T^HE old aphorism "that blood will tell" seems to apply with 
X peculiar force to the character of Thomas James Stewart, 
of Jersey City, New Jersey. He is descended from an ancient 
Scotch-Irish family that has been noted for several generations 
for rigors.)(4S piety and strict religious ideals of life. According to 
tradition, the St-ewarts or Stuarts wer. 
y^rU,^ fU-j <-.- f-fland during the sevenii 

■•ailing in Scot! icu i.) Uic iSorth of 

:he family resi' ' rt Stuart or Samuel 

-iant, emigrated to the United Stai 

' '= a farmer and horse dealer ne... :,,, and 

lame was Jane Shaw. He was bom March 1 1, 

: eland; was brought up there and learned the 

engineer; he came to America about 1850 

rk City, where he k 

West Hoboken, N. 

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Stcv 



his: 

trade vi 
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therein. 
Life G-!.'^ ::• 
York \'o' 
honorahl} 
wounded 3i the 
i$6z: he arrai- 
Ho()->kci% Ncvi 
NcH Jfiscy i 
ford, [reJaiid. .^ 
settled in '^ 
she was v- 
among "I., 
THm. 
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vears 
lived 
cott's 
>Jew 
lb 63, when he was 
his company at New York. He was 
• .ifTicksburg, Virginia, December 11-13, 
..riTcant He follow'' 'i''- t-r jfie in 
27, 1909, ''it)', 

'- i.t ) ■. I i^-,.uicy, a nari" ' uy Long- 

came to America with her pa i §53 and 

Her mothers maiden namt was :\nn Wilson; 
1S34, and died February 3, 191 1, and had 
n, of whom see the following. 
'.', son of Robert or Samuel ?"' ' 
• >«.>-i'r, was born November 23, v 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 325 

southeast corner of Seventh avenue and Twenty-sixth street, New 
York City, New York. He attended the public schools of West Ho- 
boken, New Jersey, until he was past twelve years of age, and gradu- 
ated therefrom with a rating of loo in grades, which was the highest 
percentage awardable. During his attendance at school he was 
recommended by his principal and secured the position of official 
messenger appointed by the town council of Hoboken, whose duty 
was to post notices on the billboards and to carry messages when 
required for them. Immediately after leaving school he was 
employed as office boy by Thomas Marshall Stewart, his uncle, at 
the rate of two dollars per week. His uncle was engaged in cleaning 
carpets and other floor coverings at 157 West Thirty-second street. 
New York City. About three years after young Stewart entered 
the employment of his uncle the then existing firm was dissolved, and 
the eider Stewart opened a new carpet cleaning establishment at 
326 Seventh avenue. New York City. Young Thomas J. Stewart 
was made clerk in the new place, then manager during the absence 
of his uncle, and at eighteen years of age his uncle gave him an 
interest in the business. This arrangement continued until 1879, 
when at the age of twenty-three years he started a carpet cleaning 
establishment of his own in Jersey City, New Jersey. 

He continued in business in Jersey City until 1888, when oppor- 
tunity came to purchase a plot at the comer of Erie and Fifth streets. 
upon which was an old wooden building formerly occupied as a 
jewelPt' factory. He demolished the old building and erected in its 
place a new brick and stone modern building, sixty by sixty feet, six 
stories high, equipped for his business. In 1893 he added two wings 
to the first building — one twenty by sixty feet, and the other twenty 
by one hundred feet, both six stories high, which made the present 
structure one of the most commodious carpet cleaning and storage 
establishments in the United States. These additions enabled Mr. 
Stewart to take on a furniture storage business in addition to carpet 
cleaning, to which was later added vans for household and furniture 
moving. He was the first person in Jersey City to provide suitable 



326 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

moving vans and competent service for handling and storing furni- 
ture of all kinds. From a small beginning the business has grown 
into one of the most important carpet cleaning and storage plants in 
the United States. The business was incorporated in 1893 as the 
Thomas J. Stewart Company, with himself as chief owner and presi- 
dent of the company. 

In politics, Mr. Stewart is a Republican on National and State 
issues, but does not limit himself to partisan policies on local issues. 
He was a candidate for City Commissioner under the Walsh Act, 
which provides for a board of five commissioners in whom executive 
authority is invested instead of a Mayor. At the election held in 
June, 19 13, he was defeated for office, but received about forty-five 
per cent, of the total vote, and the highest number of votes for a 
candidate on his party's ticket. He was vice-president of the Jersey 
City Board of Trade, and a member of the executive and finance 
committees; is president of the Newman Mission and Industrial 
Home, of Jersey City; and of the Team Owner's Association of 
Hudson County ; member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals, New York City; the Organized Aid, and other charitable 
organizations. He Is a member of the United Presbyterian Church, 
and has been elder several years during recent times. 

Thomas James Stewart married Cornelia Banta, daughter of 
George D. and Emily M. Banta, February 12, 1885, at West Hobo- 
ken, New Jersey. They have seven children, namely: Thomas 
James Stewart, Cornelia Stewart, Arthur Stewart, Hazel Stewart, 
Robert G. Stewart, Oliver R. Stewart, and Russel H. Stewart, 
deceased. The family resides at 604 Bergen avenue, Jersey City, 
New Jersey. 

A family characteristic that has come down from remote ances- 
tors is that of high sense of honor, unswerving personal integrity, 
and of unimpeachable honesty in business dealings. The element of 
personal reputation stands out in the history of this family generation 
after generation in marked distinction to the lax morals of the time. 
The immediate antecedents of Thomas James Stewart were devout 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 327 

Christians, who studied their Bible as the oracle of God; and drew 
from its teachings the precepts of virtue, that have been passed on 
to their posterity. 




EDMUND LE BRETON GARDNER 



THE history of a nation is the record of the achievements of its 
people, and thus biography becomes the very foundation 
upon which the general history of mankind rests. The importance 
of making a permanent record of the lifework of such men as are 
worthy of this distinction cannot be overestimated, and it is of a man 
of this caliber, Edmund Le Breton Gardner, of Ridgewood, Bergen 
county, New Jersey, that this review treats. 

While a history of the ancestors of Mr. Gardner is most inter- 
esting reading, limited space will not permit us to enter upon any- 
thing but a brief mention. The family record contains many names 
of members of this family who were officers in the army and officials 
in the civil government of the colonies. Oliver Prescott held the 
rank of Major-General under Washington, and was a Judge of the 
Probate Court of Massachusetts. Governor Thomas Dudley was 
another ancestor, who achieved prominence in the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony; and the line can be traced directly to Elder William 
Brewster, of "Mayflower" fame. The paternal grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch, John Dean Gardner, was born in 1799, died 
1869; he married Susan Newell Dick. George Arthur, son of John 
Dean and Susan Newell (Dick) Gardner, was born in 1829, died 
1879; he was a business man of ability, noted for his piety, and mar- 
ried Mary Caroline Le Breton. Her father was Edmund Lewis i^e 
Breton, born in 1805, died 1849, married Lucy Oliver Prescott; he 
was a descendant of Pierre Le Bretagne, of Nantes, France, who 
came to this country about 1766 and settled at Newburyport, Massa- 
chusetts. The American progenitor of the Gardner family was 
Thomas Gardner, who came from England in 1635, and settled in 
Boston, Massachusetts. 

Edmund Le Breton Gardner was born in Brookline, Massachu- 
setts, in the year 1851. He received an excellent preparatory educa- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 329 

tion and, prior to entering college learned the machinist's trade, 
having a natural bent for that field of industry, and desiring to obtain 
a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of what he intended 
to make his life work. Ihroughout ail the years he devoted to study 
he was largely self-supporting, and even in those early days he was 
animated by the principles which characterized him up to the present 
time — work and more work, and temperance. I laving matriculated 
at Cornell University, he was graduated from this institution in the 
class of 1875 ^^'th '^he degree of Bachelor of Mechanical Engineer- 
ing. His main line of reading has always been along the lines of 
mechanical and civil engineering, as assisting in the work he always 
had in view. His first appointment was as instructor in mathematics 
and assistant professor at Cornell University, and from this he went 
into the professional work of a civil engineer. He has been the engi- 
neer in charge of the work for the Dundee Water Power Company, 
Passaic, New Jersey, since 1880; and he is president of a number of 
public ser\ice water and electric light companies. His political 
affiliations are with the Republican party, but the demands made 
upon his time by the responsible positions he holds make it impossi- 
ble for him to devote more time to the political matters of the 
community, than is given by any good citizen. He is a member of 
the Protestant Episcopal church. His membership in other organi- 
zations is as follows: Phi Delta Theta college fraternity; Univer- 
sity Club of New York; Union League, and Riding and Automobile 
clubs, of New York; Hamilton, Areola and Ridgewoods, New Jer- 
sey; Patriotic Society of the Mayflower; Sons of the Revolution; 
Founders and Patriots; Soiiety of Colonial Wars; Descendants of 
Colonial Governors. Some years ago the favorite forms of recre- 
ation in which Mr. Gardner indulged were rowing and baseball, 
which changed to tennis in the course of time, and now he finds 
his chief pleasure in outdoor amusement in golfing. 

Mr. Gardner married, November 24, 1887, Louise, daughter 
of John and Henrietta Sprague. They have two children : Ade- 
laide, and Prescott, who is at present attending school. Mr. Gardner 



330 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



is broad and comprehensive in his views on all subjects. He gives 
careful thought to any project with which he becomes identified, and 
the result of his deliberations is one to be highly commended. His 
social qualities and sterling worth have made him very popular, and 
he has a large circle of friends in business as well as in private life. 



HENRY AMORY HOTWET, M. D. 



PROBABLY one of the ablest physicians to be attracted to this 
portion of the State of New Jersey, is Dr. Henry A. Hotwet, 
a native of Iowa, with a fine record as a practitioner in the last four 
or five years, since his residence in Weeliawken. Dr. Hotwet was 
born in Spillville, Winneshiek county, Iowa, in the year 1874, being 
the son of Alexander and Inger Hotwet. His father was a pros- 
perous farmer out west, and able to give his son the advantages of 
an excellent education as the best possible start in life. 

Pursuing his studies in the public schools of the vicinity of his 
birth, Dr. Hotwet was graduated from the High School at Decorah, 
Iowa; after which he took a course in the Valder Business College. 
Concluding this with marked credit to himself, he turned his atten- 
tion to the study of pharmacy, and going to Des .Moines, was admit- 
ted as a student at the Highland Park College of Pharmacy. He 
was graduated there with the degree of Ph. D. in May, 1872; after 
which he went to Denver, Colorado, and obtained employment in his 
chosen profession. He remained in Denver for awhile, and in other 
Colorado cities, gathering experience and maturing his knowledge, 
when he determined upon a career in the East. Coming therefore to 
New York City, he passed the State Board examination and found 
satisfactory employment in the metropolis, where he remained for a 
period of four years. At the expiration of this time he returned to 
the West, and entering the Northern Indiana University at Valpa- 
raiso, Indiana, completed a year's collegiate course there with a view 
to ev'cntually adopting the profession. He then entered the medical 
department of the University of Chicago, completing the course with 
credit and graduating in the year 1908 with the degree of M. D. 
After engaging in the usual hospital work. Dr. Hotwet returned east 
and located in Wcehnwken, New Jersey, beginning the general prac- 
tice of medicine and surgery here in October, 1909, and continuing 



332 BIOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 

until the present time; his practice now being one of the most exten- 
sive in the place and constantly growing. On July 24, 19 13, Dr. 
Hotwet was elected an honorary member of the Italian Physico- 
Chemical Academy, of Palermo, Sicily. 

Dr. Hotwet's name is connected with the leading medical soci- 
eties and associations of the State, he being a member of the Hudson 
County, New Jersey State, and American Medical Associations, and 
an honorary member of the New York. Academy of Medicine. He 
is associated with the Bergen Private Sanatorium and with several 
similar Institutions in New York City, where the quality of his work 
has been such as to reflect great credit upon his attainments and 
skill. For the period of a year he occupied the chair of physiology at 
the New Jersey Unlversit)', in Jersey City; and he Is a member In 
high standing of the Alumni Associations of Highland Park College 
and North Indiana University. Mrs. Hotwet is a charter member 
of the Weehawken Nursery Society to which she has given much 
of her valuable time and interest with distinctly praiseworthy 
results; and belongs to various local organizations here, as well as to 
a number in New York City, where she has achieved considerable 
distinction. 

Dr. Hotwet is an Independent in politics, having strong views 
and maintaining a lively Interest In the public welfare and general 
good of the community in which he has elected to do his life- 
work. He is a consistent churchman, attending the Grace Episcopal 
church, of Union Hill. After coming East, he was married to Miss 
Fannie Violet Von Osthoff, of New York City, and they have one son, 
Henn- Amor\' Hot^vet ]r. 



HENRY COOPER KELSEY 



HENRY COOPER KELSEY, of Trenton, New Jersey, is a 
man of merit and distinction who owes his prominent posi- 
tion in business circles and public life mainly to his ow-n efforts, and 
his career is certainly worthy of biographic honors. His parents 
were John and Ellen Mills (Van Kirk) Kelsey, the former of 
Scotch descent, born in Newton, New Jersey, in 1809, the latter of 
Dutch ancestry, and born in Sparta, New Jersey, in 18 14. 

Henry Cooper Kelsey was born in Sparta, Sussex county. New 
Jersey, December 4, 1837, and at the public schools of his native 
town he received the education which he later supplemented by 
earnest study at home, and by keen observation of men and manners. 
His training for a mercantile line of business was acquired while he 
held the position of clerk in a general store, and he was successfully 
engaged in business as a merchant for some time. He also met with 
success as the editor of the "New Jersey Herald," which was pub- 
lished in Newton, New Jersey, and which he had purchased in 1867. 
He had been active in public affairs as a supporter of Democratic 
principles from the time he had cast his first vote, and he held the 
office of postmaster at Newton for a number of years. Having been 
appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Sussex county 
in I 866, he held the office for a period of four years. Governor 
Randolph appointed him Secretary of State in 1870, for the period 
of one year, the resignation of H. N. Congar having caused the 
vacancy. Upon the expiration of this term he was again appointed 
by the same Governor for a full term of five years, this expiring 
in 1876. The Republican Senate confirmed this appointment, and 
when Mr. Kelsey was re-appointed at the expiration of the term, by 
Governor Bedle, who had succeeded Governor Randolph, a Repub- 
lican Senate again confirmed the appointment. In 1881 Mr. Kelsey 
was nominated by Governor Ludlow for another full term, and as 



334 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the Senate refused to confirm the nomination, he appointed him to 
fill the vacancy for one year, and appointed him for the full term of 
five years in 1882, when the Senate confirmed the nomination. Mr. 
Kelsey was re-appointed to the same office in 1887 and 1892 by Gov- 
ernors Green and Abbett, the nomination being confirmed by the 
Senate each time. The total period of his service, which expired 
April I, 1897, was twenty-seven years, a longer term, probably, than 
was ever served in an office of like high rank by any one in this 
country. By virtue of his office he was a member of a number of 
State Boards, Commissioner of Banking and Insurance, Clerk of 
Board of State Canvassers, Clerk of the Court of Errors and 
Appeals, Clerk of the Court of Impeachments, Clerk of the Court 
of Pardons, Clerk of the Prerogative Court, Commissioner of State 
Library and of the Scientific School. The Legislature appointed him 
a member of the State House Rebuilding Commission in 1885. 

While serving the public in high office, Mr. Kelsey was per- 
sonally interested in a number of financial and other business enter- 
prises. He was for many years a director and vice-president of the 
Mechanics' National Bank of Trenton, which position he still holds, 
and a director of the Sussex National Bank, at Newton, having held 
this position prior to his removal to Trenton. Among his corpora- 
tion interests were the gas companies of Newark, New Jersey, and it 
was through his instrumentality that they were consolidated in 1895. 
He was president of the Consolidated Company from its organiza- 
tion until 1898, at which time it was sold to the United Gas Improve- 
ment Company of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Kelsey married. May 15, 1861, Prudence, who died Janu- 
ary 3, 1904, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Simonson) Town- 
send, of Newton, New Jersey. They had no children. Mr. Kelsey, 
for many years, has found his best recreation in travel, in which he 
has indulged extensively in this country, and has crossed the Atlantic 
about forty times, visiting almost every country in Europe. He is a 
member of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, but has a sincere 
reverence for religion of every denomination, and makes no dis- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 335 

tinction in the distribution of his liberal donations. After the death 
of his wife, as a mark of respect to her memory, Mr. Kelsey paid off 
the entire mortgage indebtedness of Trinity Protestant Episcopal 
Church, of which she had been a member, and gave generously to 
the fund for the improvement of the church. He has assisted the 
Christ Protestant Episcopal Church of Newton, his wife's home 
church, in a similar manner. It is now more than forty years since 
Mr. Kelsey took up his residence in Trenton House, Trenton, New 
Jersey. 



JOHN S. McMASTER 



JOHN STEVENSON McMASTER, lawyer, of Jersey City, 
New Jersey, was born at Pocomoke, Maryland, December 29, 
1859. His parents were John Thomas Bayly McMaster, M. D., 
and Elizabeth Grace Stevenson. Dr. McMaster was a Union-Demo- 
crat during the Civil War; served one term in the Maryland Senate; 
was postmaster and Collector of Internal Revenue; was first presi- 
dent of the railroad to Pocomoke, now extended to Cape Charles, 
Virginia, and practised his profession of physician and surgeon in 
Pocomoke for forty years preceding his death in 1889. 

Mr. McMaster is Highland Scotch (Buchanan Clan) on his 
father's side, and Lowland Scotch on his mother's side. Some of 
his ancestors came from Scotland to Ireland, and thence to the East- 
ern shores of Maryland and Virginia, more than two hundred years 
ago. His great-grandfather, Rev. Samuel McMaster, came from 
Scotland, and was pastor at the same time of the Presbyterian 
churches at Snow Hill, Pitts Creek and Rehoboth, Maryland, (his 
only charge) for thirty-seven years (1774-1811) during the Revo- 
lutionary War period. These are the oldest regularly organized 
Presbyterian churches in America. 

Mr. McMaster was educated at the Pocomoke High School 
and Delaware College at Newark, Delaware, and was graduated 
from Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1883, with the 
degree of A. B., being Latin salutatorian, and later secured the 
degree of A. M. He taught in the High School at Pocomoke for 
two years ( 1 878-1 880) and also taught mathematics and the natural 
sciences for five years (1883- 1888) in the Morris Academy, Mor- 
ristown. New Jersey, and whilst there studied law with Vice-Chan- 
cellor Henry C. Pitney, and in 1885 at the LTniversity of Virginia. 
In June, 1888, at Trenton, New Jersey, he was admitted to the Bar 



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BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 337 

as attorney, and in June, 1891, as counsellor, and later appointed a 
Special Master in Chancery and a Supreme Court Commissioner. 

From June, 1888, until November, 1889, he practised law at 
Dover, New Jersey, as an associate of Justice Mahlon Pitney, now 
of the United States Supreme Court. He ser\-ed as private secretary 
( Democratic) to President George T. Werts, of the Senate, in 1889, 
and in a similar capacity to Speaker William C. Heppenheimer, of 
the House, in 1890, and to President Robert Adrain, of the Senate, 
in 1891 and 1892, and to Governor George T. Werts during his 
term (1893- 1896) as Governor of New Jersey. 

He came to Jersey City in November, 1889, and has since then 
practised alone except for seven years (1892-1899) when he was 
in partnership with Asa W. Dickinson and Charles D. Thompson, 
under the firm name of Dickinson, Thompson & McMaster. His 
practice is largely in the Court of Chancery and in the management 
of estates. His offices are at No. i Exchange Place, Jersey City. 
He has held a number of important receiverships. 

He has travelled extensively in this country and in Europe. 
He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of New York City; 
the Washington Association of Morristown, New Jersey; the Orig- 
inal Research Society of Maryland; National Geographic Society; 
the New Jersey Historical Society, and the Presbyterian Historical 
Societ}', of Philadelphia. He is an elder in the First Presbyterian 
Church, of Jersey City% and an ex-president of the Children's Friend 
Society, of Jersey City. He has written and published several his- 
torical sketches of various prominent people and families, mainly of 
Maryland and Virginia, and concerning the early Presbyterian 
churches in his native locality, familiarly known as the Eastern 
Shore of Maryland and Virginia and the Land of Evergreens. He 
has made many public addresses on various topics, and made a num- 
ber of stump speeches advocating the election of Hon. Charles C. 
Black (Democrat) as Governor of New Jersey on the Equal Taxa- 
tion issue. He lately made one of the principal addresses at the 
NO— 22 



338 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

unveiling of the monument in Virginia to Rev. Francis Makemie, 
chief founder of the Presbyterian church in America. He is the 
author of "Sketch of Rev. Samuel McMaster," and a like "Sketch 
of John S. Stevenson," and articles entitled "Makemieland," "Land 
of Evergreens," "Purpose of the Old Home Prize," and "The 
Head, Hand and Heart Method;" all of which articles have attained 
wide circulation. He is also an associate editor of this work — "His- 
tory of Newark." 

On May 15, 1894, he was married, at Pocomoke, Maryland, 
to Louisa Jane Dennis, daughter of Hon. Samuel K. Dennis and h'S 
wife, Sally Crisfield. He has two sons, John Dennis McNLaster and 
Alfred Dennis McMaster. 



ALBERT RICHARDS 



ALBERT RICHARDS, a prominent politician and popular 
hotel man of Dover, New Jersey, was born near Easton, 
Pennsylvania, August ii, 1855, son of Henry and Jane (Price) 
Richards. His father was born in Shropshire, England, in 1801, 
son of William H. Richards, and died August 18, 1868, in North- 
ampton county, Pennsylvania. He came to the coal regions of 
Pennsylvania at the age of fifteen years, and rose in the employ of 
the mining companies, through the various minor positions, until he 
became operator, and finally superintendent of the Glendon Iron 
Company. He had charge of their works in and near Easton, Penn- 
sylvania, and in northern New Jersey. He married Jane, daughter 
of John Price, a farmer of Durham, Pennsylvania; she died October 
18, 1892, aged sixty-se\en years. 

Albert Richards received his preliminary teaching in the public 
schools of Easton. He then entered Lafayette College, but remained 
only a short time, preferring to study law. Judge William T. 
Laporte, of Dover, began to instruct him in the rudiments of legal 
knowledge, and Mr. Richards remained there for two years. His 
inherited talents, however, induced him to return to the business of 
mining, which his father had found so lucrative. Henry Richards 
was then superintendent with the Glendon Iron Company, and his 
son soon fount! employment with the same firm, moving to Hurd- 
town. New Jersey, to become one of their mining contractors. This 
kind of work continued to hold his attention for the next eighteen 
years, and proved very profitable. His savings were invested in 
1893 '" 'he Mansion House, at Dover, a fine and first-class hotel 
while under his direction, but he retired from this business in 1905, 
after twelve successful years of proprietorship, having won a host 
of friends, both in his own community and among those who patron- 
ized his hostelry. Mr. Richariis' personality ant! his executive 



340 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ability have been in demand in other fields than business. He is a 
strong adherent of the principles of the Republican party, and has 
been elected a member of the Dover city council, serving from 1906 
to 1908. He is connected with the Free and Accepted Masons, and 
also with the Elks. His residence, situated in large and well- 
kept grounds, stands on South Norris street, Dover. 

Mr. Richards married, in 1898, Blanche Lantz, daughter of 
Robert and Elizabeth Lantz, of Sussex county, New Jersey. Their 
son, Jack Van Nostrand, was born July 5, 1899. 



ANTHONY GREGORY SACCO. M, D. 



THE history of a State, as well as that of a Nation, consists 
chiefly of the chronicles of the lives and ileeds of those who 
have conferred honor and dignity upon it, whether in the broad 
sphere of professional work, or of public labors, or in the narrower, 
but not less worthy, one of individual activity. If the general good 
has been promoted, the man who has brought about this state of 
affairs is most decidedly worthy of mention. Anthony Gregory 
Sacco, M. D., while he has not yet been identified with the medical 
profession a great number of years, has already accomplished 
results which redound greatly to his credit. Since his residence in 
West Hoboken, New Jersey, he has succeeded in acquiring the confi- 
dence of a large number of patients. 

Dr. Anthony Gregory Sacco was born in the State of New 
Jersey, September 5, 1888, and is a son of John G. Sacco, a private 
banker and prominent politician of Long Branch, New Jersey. He 
became a student at the Chattle High School, New Jersey, and 
was graduated from this institution in June, 1907, after which he 
matriculated at the Medical Department of Cornell University, 
from which he was graduated in the class of 191 1 with the degree 
of Doctor of Medicine. While a student at this institution he was a 
member of the Alpha Kappa Kappa fraternity, and served as treas- 
urer of the same. He took a prominent part in all the student activi- 
ties. After his graduation some time was spent in the New York 
City Hospital, located on Blackwell's Island; one year at Christ 
Hospital, New Jersey; and he then established himself in private 
practice, locating his office at No. 440 Clinton street, West Hoboken. 
New Jersey. Dr. Sacco is still a member of the Alpha Kappa Kappa 
fraternity; of the Cornell Alumni Association; Cornell Club of New 
York City; Hudson County, State and American medical societies; 
and a number of lodges and other organizations. In politica! 



342 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

affairs, Dr. Sacco prefers to form his opinions independently, and 
will not allow himself to be bound by party ties. While in college he 
took a great interest in all athletic sports, and this has not abated. 
He is a member of the Automobile Club of America, and finds great 
pleasure in this form of recreation. Dr. Sacco is unmarried. He 
devotes a great part of his leisure time to study and research, and is 
devoted to his professional work. 




ARCHIBALD ERNEST OLPP, M. D. 



AS an exceptionally able general practitioner and scientist, Dr. 
Archibald Ernest Olpp is well known in his portion of the 
State, having a practice that is constantly enlarging, and daily 
widening his scope of usefulness along scientific and medical lines. 
Dr. Olpp was born at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1882, 
being the son of John Olpp, a retired foreman of the forge depart- 
ment of the Bethlehem Steel Mills. 

His primary education w'as acquired in the city schools, alter 
which he attended the Mora\ian Parochial School and was grad- 
uated therefrom. Entering Lehigh University, he completed the 
course and was graduated in 1903, with the degree of D. S. ; and 
taking another year's course at the same institution received the 
degree of bachelor of chemistry, in 1904. Resolving upon making 
medicine his profession in life, Dr. Olpp in the same year entered 
the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he 
remained for the full four years' course, being graduated in the year 
1908 with the degree of M. D. 

He did not enter at once upon the practice of his profession, 
hut being appointed instructor in biological chemistry at the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, at Columbia University, New York, he 
held that important chair for a year. At the end of this time he 
established himself in the general practice of medicine, in which he 
has continued ever since. His abilities were quickly recognized, and 
he was appointed pathologist to the North Hudson Hospital, and 
medical examiner at St. Mary's Hospital in Jersey City. As a result 
of his expert knowledge of chemistry he received the appointment 
of consulting chemist to the Catskill Chemical Company, of Smith's 
Landing, New York. 

Dr. Olpp is connected with many prominent societies and insti- 
tutions of medical and scientific character, and has rendered very 



344 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

important service to the State and city along professional lines. He 
is a member of the West Hoboken Board of Health, and for one 
year has held the post of City Physician. He is a member also of 
the Hudson County Medical Society, of the Biological-Chemical 
Society of New York City, and is associate member of the New 
York State Medical Society. While a resident of the University 
of Pennsylvania, he was treasurer of the Pepper Medical Society 
of the University, in which he still retains an active interest. 

He is a member of the Alumni Association of the University' of 
Pennsylv'ania, and of Lehigh University. During the four years' 
course at the latter he was president of his class the entire time, 
there being only one other instance of the kind in the history of the 
school. At college he was a member of the Greek letter fraternities 
Kappa Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and Psi Alpha Sigma, being treasurer of 
the latter; he has retained his membership in these fraternities and 
still takes an active interest in all of their affairs. He is very popular 
socially and belongs to the fraternal organizations of Foresters and 
Woodmen, and takes a lively interest in all healthful out of door 
sports and recreations. 



GUSTAVE W. DRAESEL, M. D. 



DR. GUSTAVE W. DRAESEL, who has heen so intimately 
associated with the welfare of the city of Hoboken for many 
years, and who is as well known in social and civic circles as he is 
among the medical fraternity, is not a native of the country which 
he has so well adorned with his superior attainments, but was born 
at Boehum, in Westphalia, Germany, on December 3, 1865, coming 
to America with his parents while he was yet in his early infancy. 

He is the son of Gustave and Frederica (Hechtenburg) 
Draesel, both natives of Germany; his father having been a building 
contractor who located in Hoboken in 1868, continuing here in 
active business until his death in April, 19 10. Dr. Draesel received 
an excellent preparatory education in the public and private schools 
of Hoboken, after which he turned his attention to the study of 
medicine with the view of making it his profession in life. Entering 
the medical department of New York University, he pursued his 
studies for a time, but left the University during the students' insur- 
rection there. He then entered the medical department of the Uni- 
versity of Wooster, Ohio, now the Western Reserve University; 
and finished the course there in 1890, when he was graduated and 
received his degree of M. 1). 

Immediately upon his graduation. Dr. Draesel entered upon the 
practice of his profession in this city, in which he has ever since been 
actively and lucratively engaged. He has become identified with the 
interests of Hoboken in many ways, and is a member of many soci- 
eties and associations for the public weal, filling important posts and 
discharging heavy responsibilities with singular ability and foresight. 
He is a member of the Hudson County, and New Jersey State 
Medical Associations, in which his standing is of the highest. He is 
also a member of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, his views 
and opinions being of great weight in their counsels. He is a director 



346 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



of the Jefferson Trust Company, of Hoboken, and has numerous 
other business connections. 

Dr. Draesel is also well known and active in Masonic circles, 
and is a member of the Doric Lodge and Salaam Temple of New- 
ark, and all the divisions of the order in the State of New Jersey. 
He belongs to the Knights of Pythias, to the Maccabees, and to the 
Order of the Knights and Ladies of Honor. 

In politics Dr. Draesel is an Independent, having his own very 
strong ideas as to the fitness of candidates put forward for election, 
and taking an active and beneficial interest in the public affairs of city 
and country. He is a noted worker in the reform of the election 
system and the management of municipal affairs generally, the serv- 
ices he has rendered along these lines being invaluable. In many 
ways the Doctor has proved himself one of the most public spirited 
and progressive citizens that this city has ever boasted, despite the 
fact that he is only one of its adopted sons; and has taught the 
native born a fine lesson in patriotism. 

On February 14, 191 2, Dr. Draesel was married in Hoboken 
to Miss Martha Muller, a native of the place and of German 
descent; and has been very happy in his choice of a wife. 




WILLIAM A. DRAESEL, M. D. 



DR. WILLIAM A. DRAESEL, brother of Dr. Gustave W. 
Draesel and Dr. Charles Draesel, of Hoboken, has attained 
prominence in his profession in West Hoboken, and is one of the best 
known medical and public men of the city. He was born in Hobo- 
ken, April 15, 1875, ten years after his parents, Gustave and Fred- 
erica (Hechtenburg) Draesel, had located in this country. His 
father, a building contractor and active business man of Jersey City, 
died in 19 10, having remained in Jersey City ever since his emigra- 
tion to this country. 

Dr. William Draesel, the younger son, was educated primarily 
in the schools of Jersey City, and at the conclusion of his studies 
there was apprenticed as clerk to Charles Sunkel, a druggist, con- 
tinuing with him for a period of one and a half ) cars. He was then 
similarly employed by William Kamlah for a like period; at the 
expiration of which he decided upon a medical career on his own 
account, and became a student in the medical department of New 
York University. Graduating in the class of 1897, he obtained his 
degree and was equipped for practice. He became an interne in the 
Bellevue and New York Lying-in Hospitals; and at the expiration 
of this service, entered upon the active practice of his profession in 
connection with his brother, Dr. (justa\e Draesel, with whom he 
remained for the period of a year, in Hoboken. He then began his 
individual practice in West Hoboken, where he has since continued 
with growing success and a continually increasing sphere of activity. 

Dr. Draesel is a member, like his brother, of the Hudson 
County, New Jersey State, and American Medical Associations. 
From 1902 until 19 10, he was town physician for West Hoboken, 
and has been exceedingly active in the promotion of the general 
welfare and prosperity of the town. He is examining physician and 
member of Camp Prosperity, No. i 1807, of the Modern Woodmen 



348 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

of America; Court West Hoboken, No. 41, F. of A.; and is 
also examining physician and member of the Hoboken Lodge 
of Elks, No. 74, the Junior Order of American Mechanics, Pros- 
perity Council, No. 250, the Elizabeth Weiner Lodge Knights and 
Ladies of Honor, the Shepherds of Bethlehem and the Star of Pros- 
perity. Beside these orders with which he is professionally as well as 
fraternally connected, he belongs also to the Doric Lodge, No. 86, 
Free and Accepted Masons, and to the Cosmopolitan Lodge, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, examining physician; also medical 
examiner for the Equitable Life Insurance Society of New York. 
He is very popular and greatly esteemed in all of these circles. 

Beside his professional prominence. Dr. Draesel has extensive 
business connections in this locality, and is interested in a number 
of the most important and prosperous corporations and enterprises 
of the city of Hoboken. He has been director of the North Hudson 
National Bank, and a stockholder of the Jefferson Trust Company 
of Hoboken, and the Palisade Building and Loan Association. He 
is a member of the American Drug Syndicate of New York, also 
a member of the Hinton Chemical Company, of Jersey City. His 
business ability is very marked, and his foresight and practical meth- 
ods have won him great esteem among his associates in these various 
enterprises. 

Dr. Draesel is a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, as is 
also his wife, who was a Miss Hermenia Melching before her mar- 
riage; she is the daughter of August Melching, a merchant of Hobo- 
ken. Dr. and Mrs. Draesel are the parents of three children: Isolde, 
William A. Jr., and Herbert; and have a delightful home in West 
Hoboken. 



FRANCIS 



f^RAxr;' n\7iT'Y i r- 



iter as a manufacturer, and lor 

-'" ^ ' !road Company. He 

.lant of John Town- 



lays, W'll- 

in a 
and 
class 



rwo years IntKi 
• \ iiiir l,:^..T^ ru- wn'- 
.ipoti graduation, in 

•y Mr. I^e made a trip to Europe, 



y ^ 

\/?^.. 



FRANCIS BAZLEY LEE 



FRANCIS BAZLEY LEE was born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
vania, January 3, 1869. He is of Scotch-Irish and English 
Quaker descent, the original emigrant of this branch of the Lee 
family being Francis, who came to Philadelphia from Carrickfergus, 
Ireland, at the opening of the Revolutionary War. One of the sons 
of Francis was Thomas Lee, a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives from the State of New Jersey during President Jackson's 
administration. Thomas Lee was a large landowner and merchant 
of Port Elizabeth, Cumberland county, New Jersey. A son of 
Thomas, Benjamin Fisler, who from 1872 to 1897 was clerk of 
the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is the father of Francis Bazley 
Lee. Benjamin Fisler Lee has long been identified with the interests 
of New Jersey, early as a merchant, later as a manufacturer, and for 
many years a director of the West Jersey Railroad Company. He 
married Annabella Wlllson Townsend, a descendant of John Town- 
send, high sheriff of Cape May county in the latter part of the seven- 
teenth century. Through the colonial plantation-owning families of 
South Jersey Mrs. Lee is descended from the Ludlams, Mays, Wil- 
letts and Somers. 

Francis Bazley Lee received his preparatory education in a 
private school in Trenton, in the famous Lawrenceville School, and 
was graduated from the State Model School in 1888, being the class 
poet. In October, 1885, while pursuing his studies, he established 
"The Signal," the official organ of the State schools. He entered 
the Wharton School of P'inance and Political Economy of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, in the autumn of 1888 and two years later 
received a certificate of proficiency. While there he was associate 
editor of "The Pennsylvanian," and upon graduation, in 1890, was 
"Ivy" poet. 

After leaving the university Mr. Lee made a trip to Europe, 



350 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

where he made a special study of matters pertaining to public health 
and made a translation, from the French, of the constitution of Bel- 
gium. Upon his return Mr. Lee entered the law office of Hon. 
Garret D. W. Vroom, in Trenton. In 1890-91 he took a special 
course in English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. 
Lee was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in June, 
1893, and from July of that year until May, 1894, he assisted the 
city solicitor of Trenton, Edwin R. Walker, in legal matters con- 
nected with the establishment of the sewer system of that city. In 
June, 1896, Mr. Lee was admitted as counsellor-at-law. 

Upon subjects connected with the advancement of public inter- 
ests Mr. Lee has been prominently before the people of the State. 
Since 1893 he has been a member of the board of managers of the 
State Charities Aid Association, and is at present a member of the 
Board of Health of the city of Trenton, his special interest being 
directed toward the establishment of public baths. In April, 1895, 
he was appointed by Governor Werts a member of the commission 
to examine the operation of penal laws and institutions of New Jer- 
sey and other States. Upon the report of this commission was based 
New Jersey legislation leading to the establishment of the "proba- 
tion" system. 

As a contributor to current historical literature on New Jersey 
Mr. Lee is best known. He is the author of numerous monographs, 
newspaper articles, and other productions, the most important being 
a "Memorial of George White Worman," University of Pennsylva- 
nia, Law, 1888, issued in 1890; "Supreme Court of New Jersey," 
"Medico-Legal Journal," March, 1892; data relating to New Jersey 
men in the Matriculate Catalogue of the University of Pennsylva- 
nia; a series of articles on colonial laws, legislation, and customs, 
"New Jersey Law Journal," 1891-1902 ; "Colonial Jersey Coinage," 
1893; "Agricultural Improvement in Southern New Jersey," 1894; 
"Jerseyisms," 1894; "History of Trenton," 1895; "History of the 
Great Seal of New Jersey," in Zieber's "American Heraldry;" and 
"Outline History and Compilations and Revisions of the Colony and 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 351 



S..'""e of New Jersey, 1717-1S96," in the General Statutes of New 
Jersey, 1896. 

As a speaker and lecturer Mr. Lee has advanced the cause of 
history-teaching by many addresses dehvered before conventions of 
teachers in nearly every county in the central and southern parts of 
the State. During 1897 ^"^ 1898 Mr. Lee was receiver and man- 
aging editor of the "Trenton Times." 

In his associations with various historic-patriotic organizations 
he further identified himself with historical inquiry in the State of 
New Jersey. He is a member of the New Jersey Historical Society, 
being upon its publication committee having in charge the State 
"Archives," a member of the Princeton Historical Society, corres- 
ponding secretary of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New 
Jersey, a member of the board of managers of the Revolutionary 
Memorial Society of New Jersey, and of the American Dialect Soci- 
ety. He has acted as secretary and president of the Alumni Associ- 
ation of the State Normal and Model Schools, and Is connected with 
similar organizations. 

Mr. Lee married, June 12, 1894, Sara Stretch Eayre, of Vin- 
centown, New Jersey, only child of Captain George Stretch and 
Marie Burr (Br\'an) Eayre, and a lineal descendant of Colonel 
Timothy Matlack, the "Fighting Quaker" of the Revolution. Cap- 
tain Eayre was commander of the Colorado Independent Battery 
during the Civil War. Through both paternal and maternal lines 
Mrs. Lee is descended from the most prominent families of the cen- 
tral part of the State. 



WILLIAM FESSLER, M. D. 



DR. WILLIAM FESSLER, long known in West New York 
for the ability with which his extensive practice here has been 
conducted and his various professional and business interests have 
been furthered, is regarded as one of the rising men of this section. 
He is as yet a comparatively young man, having been born in New 
York City on March 12, 1881; and is the son of the late Henry 
Fessler, a silk manufacturer of New York City and Union Hill, New 
Jersey, who died March 9, 1887, leaving a prosperous business 
which is still conducted by the estate. 

Dr. Fessler received a very thorough primary education at the 
public schools, after which he entered the Hoboken Academy where 
he followed a nine years' course. At the conclusion of his studies at 
the Academy he took a special course at the Egan Business College 
in Hoboken, where he remained a year, in order to equip himself 
thoroughly for handling large business interests. At the expiration 
of this time he turned his attention to the study of medicine and was 
admitted as a student at the Baltimore Medical College. He was 
popular among his classmates at college, being a member of the 
Phi Chi fraternity and taking a prominent part in the usual student 
activities. He was graduated from the college in the year 1907, 
receiving his degree of M. D., after which he became an interne of 
the Baltimore General Hospital and of the Lying-in Hospital of 
New York City. Acquiring thus the necessary experience in his pro- 
fession, he entered upon a general practice in West New York and 
has continued here actively ever since. He is now assistant surgeon 
of the North Hudson Hospital, and medical inspector of schools 
for West New York; and has the prospect of a brilliant future 
before him in the professional field. He is a member of the Alumni 
Associations of the Medical College and hospitals, and has wide 
social connections. 



BIOGRAPHICAL EK'CYCLOPEDIA 353 

Dr. Fessler is an Independent in politics, giving his vote to the 
candidate whom he esteems best fitted for office. He was married 
some years since to Miss Carolyn S. Cockey, of Baltimore, Mary- 
land; and they have one daughter, Virginia MacGruder Pussier. Dr. 
Fessler has a handsome residence in West New York, where he and 
his wife dispense their hospitality and are the centre of a delightful 
social circle. 

NC— 23 



SIGMAR C. HILFER, M. D. 



IN Dr. Sigmar C. Hilfer, one of the best known of the rising 
young physicians of this State, we have another instance of the 
debt which this country owes to Germany, the most scientific of all 
the modern nations of the earth; for Dr. Hilfer, whose success in 
this city has been so marked, is not a native of the United States, but 
was born February 23, 1880, at Schweidwitz, in the Province of 
Silesia, Germany. 

He is a man of culture and literary taste, which he has inher- 
ited; for his father, William Hilfer, was superintendent of schools 
and an authority along educational lines, seeing to it that his son had 
the best possible educational advantages and the highest instruction 
that could be obtained in Germany. Dr. Hilfer's primary and gen- 
eral studies were pursued in the private and public schools of his 
country; after which he entered the Universities of Greifswald, 
Berlin, and Heidelburg, where he pursued extensive and thorough 
courses in medicine and surgery to which sciences he was strongly 
drawn by his keen and well trained intelligence. 

Having attended the three universities named, he then entered 
the University of Wuerzburg in pursuit of further knowledge in his 
chosen profession, and in 1906 was graduated therefrom with the 
degree of M. D. After obtaining his degree he passed the follow- 
ing six months in attendance at the Polyclinic Hospital in Wuerz- 
burg, increasing his knowledge and gaining much valuable experience 
in his profession. Dr. Hilfer then decided upon visiting America; 
and coming to New York City, was installed as house physician at the 
Sydenham Hospital, where he remained for a further period of six 
months. Having thus acquired a thorough and excellent training, 
and become acquainted with the new field of action which he had 
chosen, he entered upon the general practice of his profession with 
an educational equipment which has rarely been surpassed and to 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 355 

which is due, in connection with his exceptional talents, the success 
with which his efforts have been rewarded. 

In August, 1907, Dr. Hilfer established himself in his present 
offices in West New York; and in addition to his private practice has 
been installed as visiting physician to the North Hudson Hospital in 
West New York, where the services which he has rendered have been 
of great value. He is a member of the Hudson County Medical Soci- 
ety, and stands in high esteem among the members of his profession 
in this locality, with a constant!)- increasing anti most promising 
practice. 

The Doctor is not a clubman, nor a member of any fratern;il 
organization; and with his strong and independent views generally, 
it is consistent to note that in politics he is also an Independent, lend- 
ing the weight of his influence and vote to the candidate whom he 
deems the best man for the office. Dr. Hilfer is a man of family, 
having been married since his arrival in this country, to Miss Eliza- 
beth Esher, of Woodcliff, New Jersey. Mrs. Hilfer is a very charm- 
ing woman of Cierman descent, and they have a delightful home in 
West New York. 



JOHN KEAN 



JOHN KEAN, financier and Senator, is descended from the 
Keans, originally of South Carolina, and then of Elizabeth- 
town, New Jersey. His great-grandfather was born in the former 
State in 1756 and was a representative in the Continental Congress, 
and afterwards became cashier of the first United States Bank in 
Philadelphia. He afterwards removed to Elizabethtown, in which 
locality the family has lived ever since. 

John Kean was born at Ursino, near Elizabeth, December 4, 
1852, and studied in private schools in preparation for a college 
course. He then entered Yale University, becoming a member of 
the class of 1876. He did not graduate, however, as he determined 
to abandon his classical course for the purpose of studying law. 
With this object in view he withdrew from Yale and entered the 
Law School at Columbia College, New York, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1875 with the degree of LL. B. Two years later, in 1877, 
he was admitted to the New Jersey bar but did not practice his pro- 
fession, engaging instead in the banking business. Active in public 
affairs, he became prominent in the political world and, in 1883, was 
elected to the United States House of Representatives, for the two 
years' term, and reelected in 1887. From this time onward his influ- 
ence in his party in the State became very great and he was chairman 
of the Republican State Committee in 1891 and 1892, and the latter 
year became its candidate for Governor. He was defeated for elec- 
tion, however, by George T. Werts, the Democratic nominee for the 
office, but two years later was made a member of the State Commis- 
sion for the revising of the State judiciary and practice. In 1896 
he was sent as a delegate-at-large to the Republican National Con- 
vention, which nominated William McKinley for the Presidency. 
Three years later he was elected by the State Legislature to represent 
New Jersey in the United States Senate as successor to James Smith 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 357 

Jr., the Democratic incumbent. His term extended until 1905, when 
he was reelected to succeed himself tor the term ending 191 1. Mr. 
Kean's influence remains unabated in his party, whose power, how- 
ever, has suffered an eclipse in State politics for the time being. He 
is still living an active and honored citizen of Ursino, New Jersey, 
the place of his birth. 



RUFUS BLODGETT 



RUFUS BLODGETT, railroad man and Senator, Is an example 
of the ambition and enterprise coupled with a tremendous 
capacity for hard work, that has enabled so many sons of toil to avail 
themselves of the opportunities offered them by our free institutions, 
and to rise from the ranks to conspicuous positions of influence and 
trust. 

Born in Dorchester, New Hampshire, October 9, 1834, he 
received a limited education in the local schools and then took up the 
machinist's trade as a means to earn his livelihood. For fourteen 
years he worked in the locomotive shops in Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire, where he gained a thorough knowledge of the practical con- 
struction of engines, and some general railroad information. His 
employment with this concern lasted from 1852 to 1866 and on the 
latter date he removed to New Jersey, where he found railroad 
employment of various sorts until, in 1874, he became superintend- 
ent for the New Jersey Southern Railroad, a position which he held 
for ten years. In 1884, he was given the same position in the New 
York and Long Branch Railroad. During this time he became 
active in the political affairs of his community, and gained such a 
reputation among his fellow citizens for his capacity that in 1878 
they sent him to the State Legislature, where he served for two 
years. He was delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 
1880, and in 1887 was elected to the United States Senate by the 
State Legislature. This office he held until 1893 ^^^ during its con- 
tinuance served on the Senatorial Committees on Census, Fisheries 
and Pensions. Mr. Blodgett's great activity in the affairs of his 
home town, Long Branch, rendered him very prominent there, so 
that upon the expiration of his term in the Senate, he was nominated 
and elected Mayor of Long Branch and was reelected to the same 
office at each subsequent election until 1898. 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 359 

Mr. Blodgett's influence in the community' was not at all con- 
fined to the political world. He was also most active in the railroad 
and financial interests of his State and founded the First and Citi- 
zen's National Banks of Long Branch, of both of which institutions 
he was president. He was also president of the First National Bank 
of Princeton and the First National Bank of South Amboy. His 
death occurred in I.ong Branch in 19 lo. 



JAMES SMITH JR. 



JAMES SMITH JR. is one of the citizens of Newark who has 
risen into prominence through his great activity and successful 
operations in the manufacturing interests of that busy city. His 
whole career has been identified with his native town, the scene alike 
of his birth, education and successful business career. He engaged 
in the manufacture of patent and enameled leather business, which 
he so developed that in time it became one of the largest concerns of 
the kind in the world. The possessor of much wealth he entered the 
political world, as a member of the Democratic party, and so great 
was his influence that he was elected a member of the Newark Com- 
mon Council, in a district long supposed to be an impregnable 
stronghold of the Republicans, with a majority larger than the whole 
vote cast for his opponent. He was then unanimously nominated 
for Mayor, but refused the honor. In 1893 the State Legislature 
elected him to the United States Senate to succeed the Honorable 
Rufus Blodgett for the term ending in 1899, on which date, the 
control of the Legislature passing into the hands of the Republicans, 
he was succeeded in that high office by Senator John Kean. While 
in the Senate Mr. Smith was active in the councils of his party and 
served on the Senate Committees on Coast Defences, District of 
Columbia, Interstate Commerce, Manufactures, Naval Affairs, and 
the Pacific Railroad, and as chairman of the Committees on Organi- 
zation and Credit and Expenditures of the Executive Department. 
He was one of the Senators instrumental in preventing the passage 
of the Wilson tariff bill during the Cleveland administration. 

Mr. Smith's financial interests have not diminished during the 
period of his political activities, and he is still connected with many 
of the most prominent business concerns of Newark, among others 
with the Federal Trust Company of Newark, of which he is the 
president. 



FRANK OBADIAH BRIGGS 



COMING from sturdy New England stock, PVank Obadiah 
Briggs had already distinguished himself before he was asso- 
ciated with New Jersey or had taken up his abode there. He was 
born in Concord, New Hampshire, August 12, 1851, a son of Major 
James F. and Roxanna (Smith) Briggs. He received his education 
at the Philips I'Aeter .Academy from 1866 to 1868, and then went to 
the West Point Military Academy, from which he graduated in 
1872. He served with the Second United States Infantry as lieu- 
tenant until 1877, when he resigned from the service and went to 
Trenton, where he made his home for many years. He at once took 
an active part in the affairs of the town so that in 1 899 he was elected 
Mayor of the place, serving until 1902. He was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Voorhees a member of the State Board of Education in 1901 
for a term of three years but resigned his position in 1902, when 
the Governor appointed him State Treasurer ad interim. This 
appointment was confirmed by the State Legislature for a term 
ending in 1905, at which date he was reelected to succeed himself. 
In 1904 he was made chairman of the Republican State Committee, 
and in 1907 he was elected by the State Legislature to the Ignited 
States Senate to succeed the Honorable J. F. Dryden, his term expir- 
ing 19 13. 

.'\t the time of Mr. Briggs first coming to Trenton he entered 
the service of the John A. Koebling's Sons Company, and from 
since then rose steadily in their employ until he occupied an important 
position with the firm and its allied companies. He was the secretary 
of the New Jersey Wire Cloth Company, the first vice-president of 
the Norfolk and Portsmouth Traction Company, and a director of 
the Trenton Savings P'und Society. On September 23, 1874, he 
was married to Miss Emily A. Allison, of Trenton, and his death 
occurred May 8, 19 13. 



RICHARD WAYNE PARKER 



RICHARD WAYNE PARKER wasborn in New Jersey, August 
6, 1848, and was the oldest son of the late Cortlandt Parker 
and his wife, Elizabeth Wolcott (Stites) Parker, of Newark. 

He attended Pingry's School in Roseville and the Newark 
Academy, and graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1864, 
Princeton College in 1867, and Columbia College Law School in 
1869. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar as an attorney in 
June, 1870, and as counsellor in 1873, having charge of the docket 
of Parker & Keasbey till 1876, when he went in partnership with his 
father in the firm of Cortlandt & Wayne Parker, which since the 
death of his father, July 29, 1907, has been composed of himself 
and his brother, Cortlandt Parker Jr. 

He was elected as a Republican to the Legislature of 1885 and 
1886; was candidate for Congress in 1892, and elected in 1894 
to the fifty-fourth Congress, and thence successively for eight con- 
secutive terms, serving until March, 191 1. He was active in the 
Legislature, especially opposing all municipal bonding acts and favor- 
ing a policy of pay as you go. He represented the Llouse of Assem- 
bly in the Laverty impeachment. Afterwards in 1893 he brought 
and won the suits against the gerr^'mander of legislative districts, and 
was active in the conduct of the Senate steal cases. 

In Congress he was a member of the committee on military 
affairs, and was a member and in the sixty-first Congress chairman of 
the committee on the judiciary, his service embracing the period of 
the Spanish and Philippine war, the Dingley and Payne tariffs, the 
reorganization of the army, and the legislation for the Panama 
Canal, of which route he was an early and earnest advocate. 

He married Eleanor Kinzie Gordon, of Savannah, in 1884, and 
has a family of three daughters, and one son, Cortlandt Parker (3d) . 





091^5 




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party 





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JAMES EUGAR MARTTNE 



THE career of James lulj^ar iMartinc, larmer and statesman, 
has fallen upon troublous times for the Democratic party in 
the State of New Jersey, a time when new social powers are becom- 
ing dominant, and the men and interests so long in control are being 
forced out by a new element in the party ranks. This movement is 
not, of course, confined to the Democratic party of the State of New 
Jersey. In the ranks of all parties, in all sections of the country, 
the power is passing into new hands. "The old order passeth, giving 
place to new." But while this is true, it is nevertheless a fact that in 
the Democracy of New Jersey one of the earliest and most striking 
battles in the great war between the old and new forces has been 
fought, and even now the issue can scarcely be called determined. It 
is this struggle which has been localized and detined by the sudden 
entrance upon the political stage of the striking personality of Wood- 
row Wilson, an entrance which the conservative faction of the party 
regards as an intrusion, and the progressives hail as the advent of a 
champion. It is hardly necessary to say that James Edgar Martine 
is of the latter persuasion. lie is one of those about whom the con- 
flict has raged most fiercely, one of those who has been in the fore- 
front of the progressive ranks, and who was instrumental in paving 
the way for Wilson's elevation to the Presidency. 

Mr. Martine was born in New York, August 25, i8i;o, a son 
of Daniel and Anna Maria (Neher) Martine of that city. Me 
attended the public schools but, owing to his father's death was 
obliged to abandon his education to engage in some way of making 
his livelihood. In the meantime his father had become possessed 
of a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in the vicinity of Plainfield, 
New Jersey, and to the cultivation of this the young man turned his 
attention. For thirty years Mr. Martine has farmed his estate, 
and of latter years the proximity to the city of Plainfield has 



364 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

given it an added value and he has turned to its development as a 
residential district. During this time Mr. Martine has been active 
in the affairs of his community, but, although he has more than once 
run for elective offices, he has never held such up to the time of the 
recent political upheaval, while he has consistently refused to accept 
any appointive position. Mr. Martine was married in October, 
1903, to Miss Julie Edgar Rodman, a granddaughter of the late 
Jacob Lorillard, of New York. 

Across the quiet current of Mr. Martine's private life was 
thrust the new political opportunity, an opportunity that was also a 
duty. The great political parties in State and Nation had for a 
long time been gradually coming into the control of interests which, 
existing for their own ends, had used their growing influence in the 
political world to mould governmental action to serve these ends and 
in a way inimical to the interests of the community at large. Lulled 
into a feeling of security by the democratic form of their institutions, 
the great mass of people had remained asleep to the real state of the 
case, for a long time, but were now coming awake, and turning their 
attention to the need of taking some steps in their own behalf. Inde- 
pendent and freedom-loving himself, and with the qualities of a 
fighter, Mr. Martine identified himself with this movement from 
the first, and soon became a leader therein. Friends and foes alike 
were quick to realize that here was one with whose courage and 
sincerity they must reckon, and he quickly became the candidate of 
the Progressives for the United States Senate. The campaign pre- 
ceding the election of 1910 was one of the most bitter which the 
State has witnessed in recent years. Accusation and recrimination 
were passed back and forth, each side proclaiming the other to be 
guilty of every political crime and iniquity. The decision lay with 
the people and was given with no uncertain voice in the subsequent 
election, which marked the beginning of Woodrow Wilson's meteoric 
political career. This election was interesting from many view- 
points, and from none more than from that of its being the first in 
which the election of United States Senator lay, in effect, directly 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 365 

with the people, whose voice in the primaries indicated emphatically 
enough to the Legislature who it was their will should be sent to 
that high assembly. Mr. Martine received four times as many votes 
as his opponent in his own party, and many more than any candidate 
of the Republicans. Important changes due to an awakening of the 
public conscience, often come with great suddenness, and it has been 
thus that Wilson's rapid rise to the Presidency has taken place, a 
rise which has in\ol\ed that of others along with it. From the start 
Wootirow Wilson had endorsed Mr. Martine's candidacy for the 
Senatorship, desiring, as he of course did. to ha\e men in ofHce 
upon whom he could count to uphold his hands in the struggle he 
was astute enough to see had but just begun, and this endorsement, 
together with the popular estimate of Mr. Martine's character was 
enough to secure his election by the Legislature, despite the whole 
pressure of the entrenched influences which had so long controlled 
politics in New Jersey. Mr. Martine has thus the distinction of 
being at once the first representative of New Jersey in the LInited 
States Senate actually chosen by the people of the State, and of being 
as well the choice of him whom the progressive element throughout 
the country selected to be their leader. Mr. Martine's election was 
for the Senatorial term, from 191 i to 19 17, and he is now acti\ely 
engaged in the transactions of the chamber of which he is so worthy 
a member. He has lately been engaged in the Senate investigation 
of the labor troubles in West Virginia, and has displayed during the 
course of it an impressive desire to see justice meted to all without 
fear or favor. 



JOHN T. NIXON 



JOHN T. NIXON, jurist and legislator, was born in Fairton, 
New Jersey, August 31, 1820. He was the son of Jeremiah S. 
Nixon who, a little after his son's birth went to Bridgeton, New 
Jersey, to live with his family. 

After the usual preparatory education John T. Nixon entered 
Princeton College, a member of the class of 1841, in which year 
he graduated with the degree of A. B. He continued with post 
graduate studies, however, for three years longer, at the end of 
which time he gained the further degree of A. M. He was a good 
student and took, for a time, a position of tutor at Princeton, and 
later filled the same function for the children of Judge Pennybacker, 
of Staunton, Virginia. He won the confidence of this eminent Vir- 
ginian jurist, and with him studied law. The intention of the two 
was the formation of a partnership, but this was frustrated by the 
death of Judge Pennybacker, but not before Mr. Nixon had been 
admitted to the bar of Virginia, in i 845. After this disappointment, 
Mr. Nixon returned to the North and took up the practice of his 
profession in Bridgeton in partnership with Judge Charles E. Elmer, 
a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, recently retired. His 
talents and abilities soon brought him before the notice of his fellow 
citizens who sent him to the State Legislature, where he remained 
three years, the third of which he occupied the position of Speaker 
of the House. In 1851 he married Miss Mar>' H. Elmer, a daugh- 
ter of Judge Lucius Q. C. Elmer, the distinguished New Jersey 
jurist. In 1859 he was elected on the Republican ticket a member 
of the United States House of Representatives of the Thirty-sixth 
Congress, and later was reelected to the Thirty-seventh Congress. 
He greatly desired an appointment from President Lincoln to a jus- 
ticeship of the United States District Court, but in this he was dis- 
appointed, as the President filled the office by appointing Richard 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 367 

Stockton Field in 1863. However, it happened that upon the retire- 
ment of Judge Held, President Grant appointed Mr. Nixon to the 
desired office. The death of John Cleve Green, financier and philan- 
thropist, involved Judge Nixon in a most arduous duty, he being 
named one of four residuary legatees to whom was left the office 
of distributing for charitable purposes Green's great fortune of 
o\'er $7,ooo,ouo. 

Judge Nixon never entirely gave up his interest in educational 
work, which had claimed his attention and efforts during early man- 
hood. P'rom 1864 to 1889 he was a trustee of Princeton College, 
and the last six years of that period, a director of the Princeton 
Theological Seminarv- In 1877 Princeton conferred upon him the 
honorar)' degree of LL. D. Judge Nixon was the author of a 
revised edition of "Elmer's Digest of the Laws of New Jersey," 
now known as "Nixon's Digest." He died September 28, 1889, in 
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. 



GEORGE ARMSTRONG HALSEY 



GEORGE ARMSTRONG HALSEY, legislator and public 
spirited citizen, was born in Springfield, New Jersey, Decem- 
ber 7, 1827. He was the son of Samuel Halsey, a leather manufac- 
turer, and as a youth the son apprenticed himself to his father to 
learn this trade. Upon his reaching his majority, the elder man 
took him into partnership with him in a firm which upon his entrance 
became S. Halsey and Son. But the young man's interests and activ- 
ities were not confined to business, and he took part in the affairs 
of the community with so much energy that his fellow citizens, in 
acknowledgment of his services elected him to the New Jersey State 
Legislature. 

In 1 86 1 he was appointed by President Lincoln, Assessor for 
New Jersey, and in this capacity organized the State into internal 
revenue districts. After the death of Lincoln, President Johnson 
directed Mr. Halsey to vacate his office and appointed his successor, 
but, the United States Senate refusing to confirm this appointment, 
Mr. Halsey remained in his office in the interim. He was the Repub- 
lican candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 
1867, and such was his popularity that he was elected in a Demo- 
cratic district to the Fortieth Congress. He was defeated the fol- 
lowing election but was again elected to the Forty-second Congress, 
when he served as Chairman on the House Committee on Public 
Buildings and Grounds. In 1872 he refused a renomination to Con- 
gress to accept the Republican candidacy for Governor of New Jer- 
sey. He was defeated in the election, however, by Governor Joel 
Parker. 

Mr. Halsey was a public spirited man and much interested in 
the history of his State. He was a member of the New Jersey His- 
torical Society, the Newark Library Association, the State Agri- 
cultural Society, and a number of financial institutions. He was 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



369 



much concerned ()\er the threatened destruction of Washington's 
headquarters at Morristown and was influential in preserving this 
historic landmark. An association was formed for this purpose, of 
which Mr. Halsey held the presidency. He died March 31, 1894, 
in Newark. 
NC-54 



DANIEL THOMSON MILL8PAUGH, M. D. 



DK. DANIEL THOMSON iMILLSPAUGH, of Paterson, 
New Jersey, whose excellent work In the treatment of nervous 
and mental diseases has attracted the attention of his colleagues in 
many parts of the world, is a member of a family which has been 
resident in this country since the early part of the eighteenth century. 
Two brothers of this name were exiled from Holland in 1730, on 
account of their religious belief. One settled in England and angli- 
cized his name, making it read Millbrook. The other, Petrus Meltz- 
bach, came to America, purchased one thousand acres of land in 
Montgomery, Orange county, New York, where he settled perma- 
nently and prospered. Adam Millspaugh, his grandson, served in the 
Revolution as a member of Colonel McCaughry's Ulster county 
militia. Many members of the Millspaugh family have been and 
are now physicians. 

William Edwin Millspaugh, a grandson of Adam, and a son 
of Samuel Millspaugh, was a teacher early in life, then engaged in 
mercantile pursuits. He was a man of fine culture, being gifted as a 
painter, musician and poet, and died at the age of forty-five years. 
He married Ann M. Corwin, who died at the age of seventy-two 
years. 

Dr. Daniel Thomson Millspaugh, son of the preceding, was 
born at Middletown, Orange county. New York, September 2, 185'S. 
He received his preparatory education in the public schools of his 
native town, and In those of Titusville anil Pleasantville, Pennsylva- 
nia, being graduated from the high school of the last mentioned 
place. Entering the service of the Standard Oil Company in 1870, 
in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, he was at first a telegrapher, and 
later filled various confidential and responsible positions. In 1S80 
he withdrew from the employ of this company with the Intention of 
making a study of medicine, but until 1888 his time was engaged 



'f^'^aS-y'f <-< (^X 



DANIEL MILLSPAUGH, M. D. 



DANIEL THOMSON MILLSPAl r<H, of Pateison, 
New Jersey, whose excellent work in the treat :ne!U of nervous 
and mental diseases has attracted the attention of his colleagues in 
many parts of the world, is a member of a family v.';- ' 'leen 
resident In this country since the early part of the eigl. r}'. 

Two brothers of this name were exiled from Hollant. ; ; jo, on 
account of their religious belief. One settled in Englanu and angli- 
cized ii'-i name, making it read Millbrook. The other, Pctrus Melt?.- 
bach, . viK t') America, purchased one thousand acres of land in 
Mont^VJ ne'v, Orange count)', New York, where he settled perma- 
nent!) - «5 . : .=",'011 Adam Millspaugh, his grandson, served in the 
Revolu'c.r :-.er of Coionel McCaughry's Ulster county 

!■ i' i ! ' ;s of the- Millspaugh family have been and 

nispaugh, a grandson of Adam, and a son 

was a teacher early in life, then engaged in 

.;: was ^ man of fine culture, being gifted as a 

; 'oet, and died at the age of forty-five years. 

1 . .,„/:,.... . ' '..irwin, who died at the age of seventy-two 

\ ■'■"■-■.. 

Millspaugh, son of the preceding, was 
' ■ county. New York, September 2, 1856. 

! - education in the public schools of his 

a.. . I'tusville and Pleasantville, Pennsylva- 

nia, b, "cn ;•< ■, *'»■ high school of the last mentioned 

place. i_i:ic! ii,- the ^ 'e Standard Oil Company in 1870, 

in the oil recjions of P 'le was at first a telegrapher, and 

later filled various ct>n!;..ii > t, ' responsible positions. In 1880 

he withdrew from the emplov <>) i-; . company with the intention of 
making a study of medicine, hiu \M\\i\ 888 his time was e njaged 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 371 

with the management of the numerous oil wells of which he was the 
owner, and also with the management of the drug store he owned. 
He pursued his professional studies in the Medical Department 
of the University of New York, and was graduated from that insti- 
tution in the class of 1884 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. 
In 1888 he commenced the practice of his profession in Pennsyl- 
\-ania, and since then has devoted himself to it exclusively. He 
located in McKean county, Pennsylvania, remaining there until 
1892, when he removed to Paterson, New Jersey, where he has been 
resident since that time. Upon settling in Paterson, he opened and 
has since conducted a sanatorium — Riverlawn — -for the treatment of 
patients suffering from nervous and mental disorders, and in this 
field he has been eminently successful. He commenced this speciali- 
zation by renting a small building which he fitted up for the purpose 
he had in view. So pronounced was the success with which he met, 
that in 1901 he bought this property and made considerable improve- 
ments in it. In 1903, one year after the big Paterson fire, Dr. Mills- 
paugh's buildings were destroyed by the same element, but this could 
not destroy his courage and energy. Purchasing a building adjoin- 
ing his property, he fitted it up for his patients, then had new build- 
ings erected upon the burned site, and was ready to occupy it by the 
following .August. 

In political matters Dr. Millspaugh is a Republican, never fails 
to cast his vote in the interests of his party, but has neither time nor 
desire to hold public office. His religious affiliations are with St. 
Paul's Church, Paterson, New Jersey. He is a member of the New 
Jersey Fire Insurance Company of Newark, and is a stockholder in 
The Mausoleum Builders of Paterson. He is an ex-member ol the 
Torrey Botanical Club of New York, and holds membership in the 
following: Passaic County, New Jersey, District Medical Society, 
American Medical Association, American Electro-Therapeutical 
Association, .American Psychological Society, American Association 
for the Study of Fpilepsy. 

Dr. Millspaugh married, in Paterson, July 5, 1886, Clara S., 



372 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

daughter of Samuel W. and Katherine (Warner) Corwin. They 
have no children. Dr. Millspaugh has remained an earnest student, 
and has contributed papers on various subjects to the medical publi- 
cations. He is most thorough and conscientious in his practice, and 
those patients who have come to him for purely professional reasons 
have grown to regard him as a personal friend. 



.THHN "^ iTVi rr \tf 



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Sergeant 
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Rate 
.■I Rev. 
it church 
5 oi ^• a: .- ancestors, 

>f ^hci! Richard Stout 

arts- 
well 
■y annals as pioneer 

>m Colgate Univer- 

vhich he attained his 

IS student for a rime 

ii, \uiiiicy-General, and was 

^6 1, and at once entered upon 



. lawyers m tUt 
i^es whi'"'^ hn>'e 
he has r 
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JOHN S. APPLEGATE 



JOHN STILWELL APPLEGATE, a leading lawyer at the 
bar of the State, and active throughout his life in public and 
community affairs, is a native of the State, born in Middletown 
township, Monmouth county, August 6, 1837, son of Joseph Stilwell 
and Ann ( Bray) Applegate. He is of one of the oldest New Jersey 
families, a descendant of Thomas Applegate, who came from Eng- 
land and was in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1635, and in 
Gravesend, Long Island, in 1647; and a descendant of Sergeant 
Richard Gibbons, a leading member of the first New Jersey Gen- 
eral Assembly in 1677, whose daughter married Thomas Applegate 
Jr. His mother, Ann (Bray) Applegate, was a descendant of Rev. 
John Bray, a Baptist minister who founded the first Baptist church 
at Holmdel, New Jersey. Others of Mr. Applegate's ancestors, 
among the most conspicuous men of their day, were Richard Stout 
and James Grover, of Monmouth Patent fame, and Richard Harts- 
horne, William Lawrence, John Throckmorton, Nicholas Stillwell 
and James Bowne — names famous in New Jersey annals as pioneer 
settlers and leaders in the making of the colony. 

John Stilwell Applegate was graduated from Colgate Univer- 
sity, Hamilton, New York, in i 858, the year in which he attained his 
majority. He then took up the study of law; was student for a time 
in the law office of William L. Dayton, Attorney-General, and was 
admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1861, and at once entered upon 
professional practice in Red Bank, where he has resided to the 
present time. His practice extends to the State and Federal courts, 
in which he is recognized as one of the most capable lawyers in the 
State. He has been connected with many notable cases which have 
appeared in the official reports, and as counsel he has represented 
some of the most important private and corporate interests in New 
Jersey. From 1875 to 1879 he was associated in partnership with 



374 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the late Henry M. Nevius, a prominent lawyer, afterward a Circuit 
Court Judge, and an armless Civil War veteran, who in 1898 served 
as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. In 
1884 Mr. Applegate and Frederick W. Hope became partners, 
which relationship continued until 1901. Subsequently Mr. Apple- 
gate formed a partnership with his son, John S. Applegate Jr., under 
the firm name of John S. Applegate & Son, as it exists to the present 
time. 

While active in his profession, Mr. Applegate has ever borne 
a useful part in public concerns. In 1862 he was elected school 
superintendent of Shrewsbury township, and was three times 
reelected. A Republican in politics, and an ardent patriot, he gave 
his strong support and liberal financial aid to the National govern- 
ment, and assisted in the recruiting of troops in his region for Civil 
War sei-vices; and as special deputy of the Union League of Amer- 
ica he organized a number of chapters of that order in various parts 
of the State. In 1865 he was a member of the Republican State 
Committee, in the notably successful gubernatorial campaign of 
Marcus L. Ward. Among his confreres on that committee were 
Barker Gummere, George M. Robeson, John T. Nixon, Horace 
N. Congar, Charles P. Smith, George A. Halsey, Major Pangborn 
and General Jardine. He was a strong factor in the incorporation 
of his town in 1871, was elected a member of its first council, of 
which he was elected president in the year following. In 1881 he 
was elected to the State Senate, being the first Republican elected 
from his county to that body. In this phenomenal contest, so great 
was his personal popularity that he received a plurality of nearly a 
thousand votes, in a county which was then regarded as the chiefest 
stronghold of New Jersey Democracy. In the Senate he proved to 
be a most efficient member, and his conduct was marked by high intel- 
ligence and unswerving integrity. Among the bills which he inaug- 
urated and which were enacted was a bill requiring the public print- 
ing of the State to be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. The 
practice had been to farm out such work as a reward for party 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 375 

ser\ice, and the new nicasurc Incurred the bitter hostility of many 
newspapers and inHuential politicians throughout the State. To the 
overthrow of the pernicious system Mr. Applegate exerted himself 
so successfully, and drew to his measure such abundant support, 
that it became a law by the unanimous support of both houses of the 
Legislature, effecting an annual sa\ Ing of $50,000. He also drafted, 
introduced and procured the enactment of a measure of the highest 
utility — a bill authorizing the smaller towns and villages to construct 
and maintain watenvorks, and under which many municipalities 
organized and operated efficient systems of public water supply. 
Under this act he was appointed (in 1884) a member of the first 
board of water commissioners of Red Bank. He was primarily 
instrumental in inaugurating the water system of that city, and held 
his position on the board until 190:;, when he resigned. He was 
otherwise usctul in local affairs. He was for many years president 
of the first building and loan association of the shore region of Mon- 
mouth county. In 1875 he initiated a movement resulting in the 
institution of the Second National Bank, of Red Bank, was chosen 
its first president, and served as such until 1887, when he resigned. 
In 1882, upon the organization of the New York and Atlantic High- 
lands railroad, he was elected president, and served as such until it 
was merged with the Central railroad system. He has also been a 
director of the Red Bank Gas Light Company for many years. 

Mr. Applegate is the president of the Monmouth County Bar 
Association, and a member of the American Bar Association. He is 
also a leading spirit in various patriotic and historical bodies — presi- 
dent of the Monmouth County Historical Association; a trustee of 
the Monmouth Battle Monument Association; a member of the New 
Jersey Society, Sons of the American Revolution, and a life member 
of the New York Genealogical and Historical Society. He is an 
honorary' member of the Regimental Association of the One Hun- 
dred and Fifty-seventh New York \'olunteer Regiment, and in 1893 
he wrote and published a memorial volume on the life and service of 
George Arrowsmlth, lieutenant-colonel of that regiment, who was 



376 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

killed at the battle of Gettysburg, for whom was named Arrow- 
smith Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Red Bank. Mr. Apple- 
gate is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society, and a life mem- 
ber of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club, of New York City. In 1904 
he received from Colgate Uni\'ersit}' the honorary degree of LL. D. 
He is a pewholder in the First Baptist Church of Shrewsbury, at Red 
Bank, and has been for forty-seven years a member of its board of 
trustees and twenty-two years last passed its president. 

He is author of "Early Courts and Lawyers of Monmouth 
County" down to 1S61, published in 191 1, and other historical and 
literary addresses. 

He married, in 1865, Deborah Catharine, daughter of Charles 
Gordon Allen, a prominent citizen of Monmouth county, and a resi- 
dent of Red Bank. His surviving children are Annie, a graduate of 
Vassar College in 1891, and the wife of Professor Charles H. A. 
Wager, L. H. D., head of the English Department of Oberlin Col- 
lege; John Stilwell Jr., a graduate of Colgate University and Har- 
vard Law School, and Prosecuting Attorney of Monmouth county, 
his wife was Elizabeth Bowne Bergen; Katharine Trafford, a grad- 
uate of Vassar College, class of 1897, and the wife of Francis J. 
Donald, Esq., of Broughty Ferry, Scotland, where she resides. 



HON. CHARLES ASA FRANCIS 



HON. CHARLES ASA FRANCIS, well known as a member 
of the State Legislature of New Jersey for many years, and 
of some local prominence in the business world of Long Branch, is 
a nati\e of Keyport, New Jersey, born there October 28, 1855, son 
of John and Amelia (Stillwell) Francis. 

Germany and Scotland are the two native lands from which 
came the emigrant ancestors of Mr. Francis. The family settled at 
an early day in New Jersey, and Nehemiah Francis was born in 
Monmouth county in 1787. He was a farmer and a member of the 
Democratic party of that day. He married, and he and his wife 
resided and died at Turkey, New Jersey, Nehemiah Francis dying in 
1864, and his wife in 1869. Among their chikiren was John, born 
at Turkey, June 6, 1820. After receiving the rudimentary educa- 
tion of the public schools, he became a carpenter and builder, and 
died June 20, 1886. He was a Republican of the earlier political 
party, but never sought office. He, however, served his country 
faithfully during the Civil War, having enlisted at Freehold in the 
Thirty-ninth New Jersey Volunteers. He was also a member of the 
Knights of Pythias. He married .'Amelia Stillwell, and of their se\en 
children, — Sarah, unmarried; .Anna, married John Hennessy; 
Charles Asa, and William, grew to maturity'. 

Charles Asa Francis, after taking the courses provided in the 
public schools at Turkey, attended a private school at Freehold. 
His first business experience was as bookkeeper in a wholesale butcher 
house for two years. Lie then became a clerk in a general store at 
Marlboro for another two years, coming then to North Long 
Branch. He there entered the employ of the New Jersey Southern 
railroad at Sandy Llook as night clerk. About three years later he 
started independently as a butcher at North Long Branch, but this 
not proving successful he became again a clerk in a general store. In 



378 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

1889 he and his present partner bought out this store, and have since 
conducted it themselves with great success. 

Mr. Francis is also vice-president of the Atlantic Fish Associ- 
ation. But his chief appearance in the public eye has been through 
political channels, having been an active worker in the Republican 
party. For eight years he was postmaster at North Long Branch. 
From I 884 to I 889 he was sent up as member of the Common Coun- 
cil, and was again elected in 1 892. Since 1886 he has been a member 
of the Board of Education, and is its present secretary. A still 
further honor awaited him in election to the General Assembly of 
New Jersey in 1894. In 1896 he was elected to the State Senate, 
and reelected in 1899. In 1902 he was president of the Senate — an 
office which under the Constitution of New Jersey is equivalent to 
that of Lieutenant-Governor in some other States. In 1905 he was 
elected Sheriff of Monmouth county, and in 19 10 was appointed 
County Collector. In 191 1 he was appointed Collector of Customs 
of the Port of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, by President Taft. Mr. 
Francis was the first Mayor of Long Branch, when it became a city, 
1 904- 1 905. The cause of popular education in New Jersey has 
been his particular subject of debate, and in furthering the general 
welfare of his constituents he has been an able and tireless worker. 
He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church only as a trustee and a 
faithful attendant, but is not a member. In fraternal matters, as 
might be expected, Mr. Francis is a busy member, belonging to the 
Odd Fellows, Free and Accepted Masons, the Royal Arcanum, and 
has been a commander of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 

Charles Asa Francis married, March 28, 1877, Mary Eliza- 
beth Hoyt, now deceased, daughter of George and Cynthia Hoyt, of 
North Long Branch. Their children are: Lulu Elsie, Seymour H., 
and Earl M., deceased. Mr. Francis married (second) December 
17, 1903, Helen Lylburn, of Philadelphia, and they have one child, 
a daughter, Reine. 



> ZO L N 1 T ' M T •, \ V f V •] Y ) r ' V k V AN 




3 



HAYOZOUN HOHANNES TOP ARYAN 



THE incident of birth and family is one for which least of ail 
attending man's life he can take credit; yet, when an ancestry 
of honorable record may be claimed, it is certainly a matter for 
honest, though unspoken pride. Hayozoun Hohannes Topakyan, 
who resides at Morristown, New Jersey, and has his place of busi- 
ness at No. 225 Fifth avenue. New York City, is a man whose prom- 
inence in business circles and other fields of activity demands distinct 
recognition, and who is a descendant of one of the oldest families 
of the Armenian aristocracy. 

Hayozoun Hohannes Topakyan was born at Sazaria, Turkey, 
November 5, 1864, a son of Hohannes and Dirhi Topakyan. The 
public schools of Sazaria furnished his early education, and he was 
then sent to the American college at Bardizak, to learn English and 
become versed in English and American methods of transacting 
business. At the age of eighteen years he became associated with 
his father in the dry goods business, which he abandoned at the end 
of a few years in order to establish himself in business independently 
in Constantinople. He opened a business as a dry goods commission 
merchant, the bulk of his transactions being with the interior of 
Turkey. Three years were devoted to this line of business, at the 
termination of which Mr. Topakyan made a business trip to the 
United States and, so favorably was he impressed with conditions 
in this country, that he determined to make it his permanent place 
of abode. He disposed of his business in Constantinople and, having 
selected New York for his business operations, commenced the 
importation of Turkish, Persian and Indian rugs in 1S87. While 
Mr. Topakyan is recognized at the present time as being at the 
head of the importation of high grade Oriental rugs into this coun- 
try, he commenced on a comparnti\Tly small scale, and it was his 



380 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

capable management which brought about the development of the 
business house of which he is the leading spirit. 

The Persian government, in 1892, appointed Mr. Topakyan 
Imperial Commissioner and Director-General of their exhibits at 
the World's Fair at Chicago. He built the Persian and Ottoman 
pavilion at his own expense, and so magnificent and interesting were 
the exhibits he gathered from both countries, that he was awarded 
forty-eight diplomas and forty-eight medals, this including the per- 
sonal thanks and a diploma from President Cleveland in recognition 
of the exceptionally fine work he had done in the interests of the fair. 

The services of Mr. Topakyan were also recognized in 1896, 
when the Venezuelan, Persian and Turkish governments decorated 
him, the last two mentioned with the most distinguished honors. 
The Imperial Order of the "Lion and the Rising Sun" was bestowed 
by the Persian government, the "Magidiya" by the Turkish govern- 
ment, and the "Buste del Lisuetor" by the Venezuelan government. 
In 1909 he was appointed Consul-General to New York by the Per- 
sian government, an office he has filled with a remarkable degree 
of executive ability. He is a diplomat of the highest order, a ready, 
forceful speaker and of distinguished manner. Probably no foreign 
consular official has ever won such high appreciation from the Amer- 
ican government as Mr. Topakyan. His loyalty to his adopted 
country is as deep and abiding as his interest in and love for his 
native land. 

In 1907 Mr. Topakyan presented to the United States, to be 
hung in the White House, a Persian rug valued at $50,000, which 
is considered the finest specimen of its kind ever brought to this 
country. Its size is six and one-half by four feet, the texture is of 
marvelously woven imperial silk, and this is richly set with numerous 
precious and semi-precious gems. This handsome gift was accepted 
by President Roosev-elt on behalf of the Nation, and Mr. Topakyan 
was complimented upon his skill in designing as well as his gener- 
osity. The rug was hung in a beautiful mahogany frame. A second 
rug was presented by Mr. Topakyan to the Government in 1910, 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 381 

and accepted by President Taft, and he presented a valuable antique 
carpet to the Field Columbian iMuseum of Chicago. More recently 
he presented to the White House, Washington City, (and which was 
accepted by President Wilson), a painting by Mr. C. Calusd — 'The 
Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor." 

In 1909 Mr. lopakyan was made a life member of the Armory 
Burgesses Corps, and also an honorary colonel and inspector of the 
start of the corps. Among others who have been honored in this 
manner are Nelson A. Miles, King Edward the Seventh, President 
Diaz of Mexico, Sir Thomas Lipton, J. Pierpont Morgan, I'heo- 
dore Roosevelt, August Belmont, John D. Rockefeller and .\niiiew 
Carnegie. He is considered an art connoisseur and world-renowned 
expert on Persian rugs and tapestries. He is the owner of a turquoise 
mine in Silver City, and of another near Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Mr. Topakyan is one of the leaders of the Armenian colony 
in this country, one of the foremost workers in behalf of his country- 
men, being always ready to lend his labor and influence to promote 
their welfare, both in this country and in their native land. Amer- 
ican politics have a deep interest for him, and the Republican party is 
indebted to him for the \aluable services he has rendered it as a 
leader among his countrymen here during the various national cam- 
paigns. Since the World's Fair of 1902 Mr. Topakyan has been 
especially active in the interests of this party. In his own country 
he is looked upon as a statesman of great ability, and he is very 
broad and democratic in his views. Among the many other posts 
of honor Mr. Topakyan has been called upon to fill is that of the 
honorary vice-presidency of the International Peace Fonim, of which 
John Wesley Hill is president, and Hon. William H. Taft, honorary 
president. Mr. Topakyan was one of the guests at the Lake 
Mohonk peace conference, and in his address upon this occasion 
said : 

"The nations have always believed that their chief duty is to 
protect their own interests. So each nation has been thinking all the 
time about herself, and wishing only to get as much as possible for 



382 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

herself. When a man is thinking that way, it is very easy for him 
to quarrel and tight with others; but while it is dishonorable for gen- 
tlemen to light when they disagree, the nations have come to believe 
that war is respectable, and they have made rules where and how 
they shall fight and kill. There are many people who say that a world 
established in peace is a dream. I think Lake Mohonk is a good 
place for such a great dream. In the Orient our prophets and poets 
would go up to the mountain when they wanted to see great things 
to tell the people. Perhaps your conference on this beautiful moun- 
tain means that if the nations are to have international peace and 
prosperity they must rise higher than thinking only of their own 
profit. In a home there is perfect peace if each one is trj'ing only to 
make the others happy. International peace will surely come when 
each nation will be thinking of doing good to the others, especially to 
the weaker and less fortunate ones; when the nations will say: 'We 
are all the children of God; if we take care of each other, God will 
take care of us all.' You will rejoice with me, I am sure, that in the 
present happier political condition the august sovereign and people 
of Persia are with you heart and soul for the success of your noble 
mission of peace." 

Mr. Topakyan is generous to a fault and entertains with a 
lavish hand, being especially noted for the unlimited hospitalit}- exer- 
cised in his beautiful home, "Persian Court," at Morris Plains, New 
Jersey. This summer home is one of the most beautiful and inter- 
esting in the suburbs. It is a typical Oriental mansion of white 
marble, beautifully decorated and furnished. Among the gifts most 
highly prized by Mr. Topakyan are the autographed photographs of 
Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft and J- Pierpont Morgan. 
As in public, so in private life, Mr. Topakyan is the center of 
the affections of his family. He possesses a social disposition 
which well fits him for the important part he has taken in public 
affairs. His life record will bear the closest scrutiny and commends 
him to the good will and respect of all. 



HERBERT COOK FARRAND 



THE Farrand family, largely in evidence in Connecticut, New 
Jersey, Vermont and Michigan, is unique in that in propor- 
tion to numbers the record of achievement of the individual members 
has been phenomenal for its number of college men in the eighteenth 
centurv, — Yale, Princeton and Mitldlebury ha\e the name among 
their alumni,— and the bench, the bar, the pulpit, the halls of legisla- 
tion and the rolls of officers in the American Revolution have the 
name written among the best representatives of those various posts 
of honor. Coming of Huguenot ancestry, the date of their immigra- 
tion to Connecticut is as early as 1643. Then v,e find Nathaniel 
Farrand in Yale, class of 1724; i^aniel F'arranei, in class ol 1742; 
another Daniel P'arrand at Princeton, class of i7';o; another Daiiiul 
Farrand at Yale, class of 1784. P'ollowing comes Bethuel Farrand, 
a graduate of Middlebury, Vermont, i 839, who sent his sons into the 
Northwest where they helped to build up the State of Michigan and 
the city of Detroit. In this record we have the New Jersey branch, 
with its root in Daniel, Princeton, .\. B., 1750. His direct descend- 
ant is Herbert Cook Farrand, postmaster of Bloomfiekl. 

Charles Farrand, father of Herbert Cook P'arrand, postmaster 
of Bloomfield, New Jersey, was born in Essex county, New Jersey, 
July 29, 1799, and died June 3, 1874. He married Anna, daughter 
of Henry D. and Julia A. (Sturtevant) Cook. Anna (Cook) Far- 
rand was born March 30, 1823, and died August 8, 1901. Charles 
Farrand was a farmer in the town of Bloomfield, New Jersey, and his 
chief concern beyond providing for his family was to give his chil- 
dren a good education and instill in them habits of intlustry, in which 
purpose he was strongly supported by his wife, herself a woman of 
strong mind and determined energy. He had eleven children, as fol- 
lows: Clara Louise; Charles H.; Stanford; Franklin; Herbert 



384 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Cook; William S. ; Ida J.; Walter D. ; Edward C; Anna B.; 
Dudley. 

Herbert Cook Farrand, fifth son of Charles and Anna (Cook) 
Farrand, was born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, March 23, 1852. He 
was brought up on his father's farm, and attended the public gram- 
mar school of his native town and the academies of Charles M. 
Davis and of Professor Rundell. In 1883 he engaged in the intro- 
duction of iron and wire fences for useful and ornamental purposes 
on farms and parks and public and private grounds, and he carried 
on this business up to the time he was appointed postmaster of 
Bloomfield, June 9, 1909, by President Taft. He served the town 
of Bloomfield as member of the council of the town from the First 
Ward from May, 1900, to July, 1909; his five successive elections 
for terms of two years were by increased majorities, which gave evi- 
dence of his successful legislative services. He was made a member 
of the important committees, and was a determined advocate of the 
ad\'ancement of the cause of education, and demanded for the public 
school system immediate and continuous support from the leading 
men of the town. He applied business methods to the matter of 
town expenses, and while restricting no appropriations that were 
really needed, he sought to lessen the tax rate by preventing graft 
and corporate greed in all departments, and as a result, besides reduc- 
ing the taxes of the town, he assisted in wiping out a large floating 
indebtedness. As chairman of the fire committee he put courage and 
new life in the old volunteer fire department and secured for them 
new and commodious headquarters; and new fire houses for the 
accommodation of the apparatus of the several branches of service, 
— hose, hooks and ladders. He became in the town council the 
friend of reform and the foe of attempted graft and inordinate 
charges for ineffective work. He was ready to hear from the people 
on all subjects of public concern, and, while a member of the Ward 
Republican Club, he did not let the question of politics overshadow 
that of civic needs and economical administration. His position on 
the finance committee gave his recommendations to that committee 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 385 

weight, and secured prompt action, cutting usual red tape and secur- 
ing to the creditors of the town for work well and properly done 
immediate payment even if the money had to be borrowed to sustain 
the credit of the town. This work in the city council being so well 
done, when there was a vacancy in the postoffice the citizens of 
Bloomfield, irrespective of political bias, joined in a recommendation 
to the Postmaster-General for the appointment of their late efficient 
town councilman, and the promotion was effected by the appointment 
of Mr. Farrand to the office of postmaster of Bloomfield by Presi- 
dent Taft. 

Mr. Farrand was married, November 6, 1876, to Mary Eliz- 
abeth, daughter of William and Mary (Taylor) Hampson, of 
Bloomfield, and they made their domestic home at 130 Franklin 
street, Bloomfield, and their church home the Westminster Presby- 
terian Church, of which they were both members, and in the Sunday- 
school in which their children were religiously educated. His chil- 
dren were: i. Maud M. Farrand, who was educated in the public 
school, and in music by the best professional teachers, and she 
adopted the vocation of instructor of piano. 2. Roy Farrand, who 
was educated at the public school, a Newark Academy graduate, and 
became a draftsman; he died November 9, 1909, just as a brilliant 
professional life was opening before him. 
NC— 2.5 



DAVID H. MERRITT 



THERE is always particular interest attaching to the life of a 
man who has turned the tide of success, and has shown his 
ability to cope with others in the daily struggle to reach the coveted 
goal. Each must fight his own way to the front of the field, or else 
be overtaken by disaster and left far behind. The career of David 
H. Merritt, president of the National Newark Banking Company, 
of Newark, New Jersey, has been an especially meritorious one, 
and one which may well be held up as an example for others to imi- 
tate. 

David H. Merritt was born at Housatonic, Massachusetts, June 
29, I 85 I, and was but two years of age when his parents removed 
with their family to New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was in the 
schools of that city that he received his education, which was a sound, 
practical one, and in the course of which he distinguished himself by 
his unusual excellence in all studies connected with calculations of any 
sort. Having completed his education, he entered the employ of the 
National Bank of New Jersey, at New Brunswick, at the age of 
fifteen years, and has been connected with financial matters since 
that time. In April, 1 870, he resigned this position in order to accept 
that of paying teller in the Newark City National Bank. His ability 
was made apparent at every point, and he held in succession the 
offices of assistant cashier, and then vice-president and cashier. Upon 
the consolidation of the Newark City National Bank and the 
National Newark Banking Company, May 12, 1902, Mr. Merritt 
was elected to fill the office of vice-president. Edward S. Campbell, 
president of the company, died in 1905, and Mr. Merritt was elected 
to succeed him, and has filled the presidential office since that time. 
He is interested in a number of other financial enterprises, and is a 
director in the Howard Savings Institution. As a member of the 
Board of Trade of Newark, Mr. Merritt holds a position of much 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 387 

importance, and his opinions are listened to with close attention by 
his fellow members. Mr. Merritt has justly attained distinction in 
financial circles, not alone in Newark and the State of New Jersey, 
but throughout the United States, as the progressive, yet conserv- 
ative, views which he has voiced in crises of the greatest importance, 
have been of the greatest benefit in determining lines of conduct. 
Personally he is of dignified and imposing appearance, with a kindly 
gleam in his eyes which belies the serious cast of his features. 

Mr. Merritt married, July 9, 1873, Mary, daughter of Osias 
Olds, of Van Deusenville, Massachusetts. They have one daughter, 
Edna. 




HENRY COOPER PITNEY 

FORMER Vice-chancellor Henry Cooper Pitney, whose death 
occurred January lo, 191 x, was one of the rnost d.st.n^.shed 
lawyers and jurists of New Jersey. A natural legal acumen led h m 
o the aw, and he gained a high reputation for unwavermg honesty 
: hi dealings with clients, thoroughness in the preparat.on of h 
ases and briUiant advocacy of every cause in wh>ch he wa 
employed In ability to deal with the techn.cahties of scientific 
Zbler^s in the knowledge of equitable principles and of equity 
law hHtood unequalled. These qualities fitted h.m as well fo 
pllading n the higher courts as before a jury, and m both he wa 
h rhirsu cessful. On the bench, to his profound knowledge of the 
?:f he added a natural sense of justice and a fervent desire to carry 

-' '^:Sl;::l:tZS^ seated m New Je.. for almost 
two centuries, and having a long and honorable English 1-ag- H. 

Lucetta, daughter of Henry Cooper, was born January 19, 1827, m 
Mendh m township, Morris county. New Jersey, on the ances ral 
^rm which afterward came to him by descent. He began his educa- 
ion uLer private tutors at home, and afterward attended the school 
of Ezra Fairchild, in Mendham (later in Plainfield) where he had 
t claLates the'eminent Presbyterian di.ne Rev. T^odo^ Cuy- 
ler, and the distinguished lawyer, W.lham FuUerton. At th ^ge ot 
fif een he was taken from school on account oi delicate health and 
remained at home until his nineteenth year, studying at •" ervals. n 
isTe he entered the junior class of Princeton College, from which 
; was graduated witi the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June, 1848, 





/■ 



v^ 



NEY 



IlJ^OR^: .Chancellor ITenry Cooper Pitnev, whose death 

occurred January lo, ic e of the n 

la^'yers and jurists of New Jeroc, . . > ..acural legal 
(o the law, and he gained a high reputation for unv 
!' his dealings with clients, thoroughness in the prepnri^non .1 nis 
. >cs, and brilliant advocacy of every cause in which he was 
. . ioyed. In ability to deal with the technicalities of scientific 
U'ms, in the knowledge of equitable principles and of equity 
'ood unequalled. These qualities fitted him as well for 
■: the higher courts as before a jury, and in both b? ^.-as 
;:. On the bench, to his profoi 

i'.niral sense of justice and a fc: 

i-eal equity. 

•n a family seated in New Je"" • *''^'- "'most 
two : lung and honorable Eng' His 

imn^ jiii: i^s Pitney, was a manufacturer > ' 

hav;, London Bridge. His grandfathe 

Pittu in the Revolutionary War. 

■' Pitney, eldest child of Mahlon Pitney aric; 

I ucetta, Henry Cooper, was bom 7, ir> 

Mendhat: Morris county, Nev," Je .^ •' 

l.irravhi<- aetohimb. 

r.Mi" 'jiide; ; t home, an^ : .. 

• > F,-'ra F, idham (later in Plair 

'-■-"" Presbyterian divine, x\-v, ji..-ju'.mi. ly- 

wyer, William FuUerton. At the age of 
) on account of delicate health, and 
enth year, studying at intervals. I 
ii;^.. i.\:- <-*itered lii. ' of Princeton College, from wh 

he w:is ^;i .(duated wi c of Bachelor of Arts in June, ' 





/^^t^' 



^Y (^ 




BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 389 

the year in which he came of age; later he received the Master's 
degree, and in 189 1, in recognition of his eminent legal and scholarly 
attainments, the same institution conferred upon him the degree of 
LL. D. 

After graduation Mr. Pitney hegan the study of law under 
Theodore Little and Hon. Ira C. Whitehead, the latter a former 
Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In 1851 he passed a 
satisfactory examination and was admitted to the bar as an attorney, 
and in 1854 as a counsellor. In the following year he opened an 
office in Morristown, but for some time his practice amounted to 
little, and he gave the major portion of his time to study, and, as he 
declared afterward in life, herein he laid the foundation of his later 
success as a jurist. In the early years of his practice the great activity 
of the iron industry in Morris county gave rise to much important 
and difficult litigation, in which he took a very active part. His 
natural taste for the study of scientific questions gave him an advan- 
tage in this class of practice, and he became recognized as an author- 
ity on questions of law relating to mining engineering. He was also 
active in the development of the Morristown Water Company, and 
took part in many important cases involving water rights, and soon 
became an authority on questions of law relating to hydraulic engi- 
neering. As the business of our equity courts increased, he became 
prominent in the trial of important cases in that forum. For many 
years before he went upon the bench his practice had principally 
been as counsel in important cases throughout the State, in most of 
which he was associated with and opposed by men who were recog- 
nized leaders of the bar. He was enthusiastically devoted to his 
profession; thorough and untiring in the preparation of his cases; 
loyal to the interests of his client — yet always fair to his opponent, 
and frank with the court. His mind was analytical and searching, 
and rarely failed to discover at once the ground upon which the con- 
test must be decided. He was indefatigable In the examination and 
discussion of authorities, and always presented his arguments with 
earnestness, vigor and convincing power; he invariably commanded 



390 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the attention and respect of the court, and won the victory whenever 
the case warranted. In 1862 he was appointed Prosecutor of the 
Pleas for Morris county, and served as such for five years with 
entire success and much credit to himself. He continued in practice 
until April, 1889, when he entered upon official position in the line 
of his profession. For several years he had acted as Advisory 
Master in Chancery, and was one of the first ten Advisory Masters 
appointed by Chancellor Runyon, in pursuance of a statute passed 
for that purpose to relieve the Chancellor in the congested work 
of the court. These were later superseded by the Vice-Chancellors, 
and he cooperated with Chancellor Zabriskie in the framing and 
enactment of the law providing for the appointment of the latter. 
On April 9, 1889, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor by Chancellor 
McGill, and he was reappointed in 1896 and again in 1903. In the 
absence of the Chancellor he was several times appointed, under the 
statute, a Master to act for the Chancellor. As Vice-Chancellor, 
Mr. Pitney brought to his office every required qualification, and 
added materially to his high prestige. Many notable cases were 
adjudicated by him, among them being the famous Tobacco Merger 
case. The amount of judicial work accomplished by him was 
immense; and would have overtaxed the energies of an ordinary 
man. His long experience in the trial of cases enabled him to sift 
and analyze testimony, and to group together the basic points in the 
case. His profound legal knowledge especially fitted him to apply 
principles, while his alertness of mind forecast the end of an argu- 
ment from its very beginning; and his keen perception gave him a 
remarkable power of logical discriminations, which resulted in the 
famous equitableness of his decisions. His scorn of fraud and wrong 
made him sometimes appear intolerant, but he was always fairminded 
and open to conviction. 

Vice-Chancellor Pitney retired from the bench by resignation 
on April 9, 1907 — the eighteenth anniversary of his appointment to 
the position, and soon after his eightieth birthday — on account of an 
increasing deafness, although his other physical faculties were unim- 



BIOGRAPHICAL FAXVCLOPEDIA 391 

paired, and his intellect was unclouded. In honor of this birthday 
e\ent, on January i<), 191 17, the Bench and Bar of New Jersey gave 
him a comphmentary dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New 
York City, where a distinguished assemblage numbering more than 
two hundred lawyers and jurists listened to lofty encomiums upon 
his life and services, uttered by Chancellor William J. Magie, who 
presided; Supreme Court Justice John Iranklin Fort (afterward 
Governor), Vice-Chancellor Frederic W. Stevens, former Attorney- 
General John W. Griggs, all of New Jersey; Judge Alton B. 
Parker, of New York, and Hampton L. Carson, former Attorney- 
General of Pennsylvania. Vice-Chancellor Pitney was greatly 
affected by this fine tribute, and betrayed the depth of his feeling in 
his response to the toast of his health. The speeches and toasts 
were afterward printed for private circulation. Three months later, 
on the day when he sat as Vice-Chancellor in Jersey City for the last 
time, the members of the Bench and Bar presented to him a hand- 
some hall clock as a further tribute of their affection and good will. 
Mr. Pitney exerted himself usefully in connection with many 
interests of great value to the community. In 1865 he aided in 
organizing the National Iron Bank, of which he became a director, 
which office he held during the remainder of his life. In 1896 he 
was chosen as president of the bank, and served in that capacity 
until his death. He was also an organizing member and a director 
of the Morris County Savings Bank. In 1870 he was one of a com- 
pany which purchased the Morris Aqueduct property, after purchase 
by the town had been rejected at the polls. lie was made president 
of the water company, and remained such until his death, and the 
property was so capably administered by him that it became highly 
valuable. He was one of the leading spirits in the Morristown 
Library and Lyceum, and a trustee; a member of the Washington 
Association of New Jersey, of the Sons of the Revolution, and a 
trustee of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown. He was a 
Republican in politics, and for a time served on the county commit- 
tee of the party. After his retirement from the bench Mr. Pitney 



392 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

spent much of his time in his law office in the National Iron Bank 
Building, hearing some cases specially as Advisory Master. He was 
also actively occupied during his last years with the affairs of the 
Morristown Water Company, the National Iron Bank and the other 
local interests just mentioned. He was also agreeably occupied with 
the supervision of his farm at Mendham, where he was born and 
which since 1760 has been owned successively by his great-grand- 
father, his grandfather, his father and himself. 

Mr. Pitney married, April 7, 1853, '" New York City, Sarah 
Louisa, daughter of Oliver and Sarah (Crane) Halsted, of Eliza- 
beth, New Jersey. Children : Sarah Halsted, married Finley A. 
Johnson; Henry Cooper, Mahlon and John Oliver Halsted, all law- 
yers; Catharine James, married to George R. Van Dusen, a lawyer 
of Philadelphia; Mary Brayton; Frederic V., married Elizabeth, 
daughter of the late Rev. George H. Chadwell, D. D., former rector 
of the Church of the Redeemer, Morristown. 

After his death, at the opening of the February term, 191 1, 
of the Court of Chancery, at Trenton, there were proceedings in 
memory of the deceased Vice-Chancellor, consisting of addresses by 
Attorney-General Wilson, former Chancellor William J. Magie, 
R. V. Lindabury and former Justice Gilbert Collins, followed by a 
formal minute prepared on behalf of the Vice-Chancellors and read 
by Vice-Chancellor Emery, all of which were made records of the 
Court and will be published in the Equity Reports. On this occasion 
his character was fittingly summarized in these words: 

His was a personality at once striking and distinguished. At the bar 
and on the bench he has made his impress upon two generations of men. 
Vigorous in mind and body, endowed with the highest qualities of courage 
and manhood, ripe in judgment, learned in the law, sensitive to truth, and 
a natural lover of justice, he has found a place of enduring eminence in 
the profession of his choice. 

His very instincts and character fitted him for special usefulness in 
the arena of equity. He despised deceit and the dissembler. He hated 
fraud. By temperament he found keen pleasure, to use his own words, in 
"laying bare a fraud into which a crafty designer had lured an unwary 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 393 



and innocent victim." Such problems aroused his keenest activities and 
righteous indignation. So, too, the man who suffered by accident or mis- 
take made liigh appeal, not so much to his sympathies as to his inherent 
love of fair play. Those who sought to evade a just and lawful under- 
taking outraged his ideals of morals and manliness. To such he made it 
clear that the remedy of specific performance could teach lessons both of 
morals and manliness, for by it how often did he compel some men to do 
by force of the court's decree what all men should have done by choice. 
To him a duty arising from confidence or trust reposed was a solemn and 
sacred obligation. Ilis whole life by precept and example proclaimed it. 
And so it was thai the negligent or dishonest trustee learned from him 
new or forgotten lessons of honesty and of diligence. And through the 
whole gamut of activity that comes to the equity judj^c his very instinct 
helped him enforce the lessons of honesty, of fairness, of diligence and 
duty, of manliness and of morals. 

If his hand was sometimes heavy his heart was always tender. If his 
manner was sometimes brusque his motives were always true to high and 
righteous ideals, and those who knew him best loved him best, and loved 
him with tender consideration. 

His mind was vigorous, resolute and splendidl\- trained, and his deliv- 
erances were clear, cogent and courageous. In the philosophy of the law 
just as in the physical universe a straight line is the shortest distance 
between two points. His reasoning was direct and not by devious paths. 
"He thought straight," as Bacon said of one of the judges in his own 
time. In an issue of law neither casuistry nor the complex refinement of 
reasoning brought confusion to his mind. The real issue was discovered 
and laid bare. The non-essentials were swept aside and the true principle 
and controlling trend of authority were speedily and appropriately applied. 
And so it was that the journey was short between the story of wrong, 
when he heard it. and the relief which was sought. 

In the controversy of fact he found the truth with unerring instinct. 
Those who knew him at the bar said his skill in marshalling and analyzing 
facts was masterful, and that faculty or gift would seem never to have left 
him, but rather to have grown with judicial experience. His opinions, I 
think, were lucid and useful to an unusual degree. This was not alone 
because he was a learned judge, but in part at least because the controlling 
facts were recited with such clearness and completeness, and analyzed 
with such care, that the principle of equity at length invoked was obvious 
and convincing. Thus when the facts had been passed in complete review 
the legal principle in its application was both illuminated and emphasized. 
It is this characteristic which made his opinions to me, at least, of special 
value. 

A notable figure has passed from our sight — a striking, forceful, 



394 BIOGRAPHICAL EN'CYCLOPEDIA 



unique personality that for over half a century was familiar to the public 
view in the discharge of duties connected with the administration of 
justice. In these, and all other duties, Henry C. Pitney served his age 
and his time faithfully and well, and then, full of years and of honors, 
like the patriarch of old, "after he had served his own generation, fell 
on sleep." 

********** 

His acceptance of this office and splendid administration of it for 
eighteen years have done much to emphasize and magnify the vital import- 
ance and influence of trial courts and courts of first instance in our 
system of jurisprudence. 

His previous career at the bar had qualified him wonderfully well for 
the position. He was pre-eminent as an equity lawyer ; but he was this 
because he was first of all thoroughly grounded in the great system of 
common-law rights — the fundamental, all pervading system which equity 
is designed to aid and supplement in order to secure full and complete 
administration of justice — and he was familiar with the full scope of the 
remedies; as an attorney he was thorough, resourceful and skillful in the 
preparation and presentation of cases, and as an advocate, powerful alike 
in the trial and appellate courts. He was equipped besides with a large 
experience in business and affairs, with wide knowledge of human nature 
and a keen insight into human character and passions. 

As a judge, his dominant trait was a passion for doing justice, which 
vibrated in every fibre of his heart and brain. And the justice, at which 
he aimed, and which so far as in him lay, he wrought out, was the full, 
completed justice, as he saw it, between the parties, on the whole dispute 
before him, without regard to mere forms of procedure. He refused to 
perpetrate, in the name of law, what he thought to be an injustice, and no 
matter how just a rule may have been at the time of its origin, he was 
prepared to disregard it and originate another in its place if it no longer 
served the end for which it was created. No judge in any of our courts 
ever showed a more complete self-effacement in searching for the right of 
a cause in order to determine what decree would stand firmly on equity 
and justice. The permanent record of his opinions in the New Jersey 
Equity Reports yields the finest fruits of learning and industry and 
splendid intellectual endowments, and his many vigorous discussions of 
novel, doubtful or complicated questions, both of law and fact, illustrate 
his powers and the dominant traits of his mind and character, and will 
constitute a great and lasting monument to his memory. 

Many of the striking traits, so familiar to all the bench and bar, can- 
not be pictured or recalled from his formal opinions, but these will long 
be perpetuated by the traditions of a profession which treasures what is 
worth preserving in the lives of its members. Hacc olim incmtnisse 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 



395 



juvabtt Not soon will tliey forget this memorable judge as he actually 
admm.stered h,s office ; his vigorous dominating presence and manner 
nis accurate, quick— sometmies impatient— seizure of the salient points of 
a case; his clashes with counsel to bring out what he thought the vita! 
questions; h.s protection of the weak against the strong; his open decided 
expression of views, with forceful argument to sustain themf but reUin 

Z^er >u7\^VfT'', °^ '"*"'' '"'■^'^y ^"^ ^« corrected. For withal and 
mer all he had absolutely no pride of opinion, no sensitiveness nor appre- 
hension about any charge of inconsistency; in truth, as he himself might 
have expressed It he stood for no conclusion, either of himself or 
another, which did not fully stand the tests to which it must properK- Z 
subjected; and because he never spared himself in these respects he 
failed to understand that others could take offense if n. times he refused 
to spare them. His personal traits, his versatility, his genial friendliness 
his wit and humor, and, over all. the power that emaifated from a greai 
human heart, full of love for his great profession and those worthy fo be 
IS members, as his brethren, and an affection that grew with his ad^^-lncing 
years, fastened all of us to him in bonds which will not be severed by 



HENRY COOPER PITNEY JR. 



HENRY C. PITNEY JR., an active lawyer and prominent in 
the civil life of the community in which he resides, was born 
in Morristown, New Jersey, August 6, 1856, eldest son of former 
Vice-Chancellor Henry Cooper Pitney. 

He entered the private school of Miss Mary Morrow in 1863, 
and that of Miss Jane Morrow in 1865. From 1866 to 1869 he was 
a student in the Morris Academy. He then entered the classical 
school of George L. Wright, A. M., which he left in June, 1874, 
to enter the sophomore class of the College of New Jersey, at 
Princeton, from which he was graduated in June, 1877, the year in 
which he attained his majority. 

Immediately after his graduation from college he took a clerk- 
ship in the law office of Pitney & Youngblood, in Morristown, also 
taking up the study of law under the excellent tutorship of his dis- 
tinguished father. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney-at- 
law by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, in June, 1880, and as a 
counsellor in February, 1884. He at once engaged in practice in 
Morristown, where he has resided to the present time. Mr. Pitney 
gives active support to community interests, particularly to the Mor- 
ristown Public Library, of which he is director, and since 1904 has 
been secretary. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Morristown, and in politics is a Republican. 

Mr. Pitney married, June 17, 1891, Laura Grace Putnam 
Wood, daughter of Andrew J. and Julia A. (Henry) Wood. 



/yuc-L^ 



6 



^ 



HE 



HNRY C. PITNEY JR., an active lawyer and pr'.minent In 
the civil life of the community In which he resides, «;as bom 
in Morristown, New Jersey, August 6, 1856, eldest son of former 
Vice-Chancellor Henry Cooper Pitney. 

He entered the private school of Miss Mary Morrow h^ 1S63, 
andthatof Miss Jane Morrowin 1865. From 18^ to 1869 ht was 
a student in the Morris Academy. He then entered the classical 
school of George L. Wright, A. M., which he left in June, 1S74, 
to enter the sophomore class of the College of New Jersey, ac 
Princeton, from which he was graduated in June, 1877, the year in 
which he attained his majority. 

Immediately after his graduation from college he took a clerk- 
ship i" • ' ' office of Pitney & Youngblood, in Morristown, also 
taki:!. udy of law under the excellent tutor dis- 

dnguisi. . ucr. He was admitted to the bar as cy-at- 

law by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, in June, 1880, and as a 

..ounselloT ~ ' • -y, 1884. He at once engaged "" — ^;ce in 

\i,v-r;5t.>- ^c has resided to the present til' t'ley 

> community interests, particularly to tne Mor- 

V of which he is director, and since 1004 has 

;nember of the First Pres^ "^urch 

rtics is a Republicr.n. 

June i; aura Grace Putnam 

V T- nrif1 lenry) Wood. 



FRANCIS EBEN WOODRUFF 



FRANCIS EBEiN WOODRUFF, of Morristown, New Jersey, 
is a descendant of one of the old families of this country, 
whose ancestors came from Fordwich, Kent, England. 

Hezekiah Stites Woodruff, M. D., of the fourth generation in 
this country, was the first of a line of physicians which continued in 
a direct line for three generations. He lived i7>4-i842. During 
the stirring period of the Revolutionary War, Dr. Woodruff thor- 
oughly proved his devotion to his country, both in his professional 
and in his private life. 

Dr. Absalom Woodruff, of the fifth generation, married Eliza, 
daughter of Colonel Jacob Drake, in whose honor Drakesville was 
named. He was born July i, 1791, and died in 1850. He was an 
able practitioner, and was a member of the Medical Society of New 
Jersey, as an elected delegate from Morris county; on the board 
of censors for Morris county; the auditing committee, etc.; July 2, 
1 8 16, he was made a member of the Morris District (now Morris 
County) Medical Society, founded June 11, 18 16; was elected vice- 
president in 1822; president in 1824, 1833, 1839; its delegate to 
State meetings; counsellor in 1837; and again elected to this office 
one year prior to his death. He was three limes married. 

His son. Dr. Ebenezer Blachly Woodruff, of the sixth genera- 
tion, early gave up his medical practice, and devoted himself to a 
business career. About 1845 he removed with his family to Morris- 
town, New Jersey, from New York City. He filled a number of 
local public offices, greatly to the benefit of the town. He married 
Elizabeth Sophia, daughter of Abraham and Mehitabel (Marsh) 
Coursen. 

Francis Eben Woodruff, of the seventh generation of his fam- 
ily in this country, in a direct line, was born in New York City, April 
24, 1844. Like his elder brother, he was offered a West Point 



398 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

cadetship, but it was thought better he should not accept. He was 
educated at the Morris Academy, and at Yale University, from 
which he was graduated in the class of 1864 with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. Immediately following this event he passed the 
examination of Major-General Silas Casey's board at Washington, 
for a second lieutenancy, United States Colored Troops; there were 
so many on the waiting list before him, however, that the commis- 
sion did not arrive until after he had accepted, at the instance of 
President Woolsey, of Yale University, a nomination by Secretary 
of State William H. Seward, to the Imperial Maritime Customs 
Service of China, (United States Diplomatic Correspondence, 1864, 
1865). On August 15, 1865, he was appointed by the Inspector- 
General of Customs, Mr. (later Sir) Robert Hart, a fourth assist- 
ant. After promotions came as follows: Deputy Commissioner, 
1868; Acting Commissioner, 1870; Commissioner (i. e. "Collector 
of Customs," as we would say; relative rank, Consul), November, 
1872; served as Commissioner at Canton and many other ports 
for a quarter of a century; he sent in his resignation, because of ill 
health, March 10, 1897. Mr. Woodruff was twice Chinese secre- 
tary to the Inspector General. In 1877 he organized and opened the 
custom house at the then newly added treaty port, Wuhu; was 
detached on special duty in Tongking, April, June, 1885. Con- 
ferred by imperial decree, civil rank of the Third Class, February 3, 
1878; civil rank of Second Class, and Double Dragon Decoration, 
September 3, 1881;. 

Mr. Woodruff casts his vote for the Democratic party, since 
the time of Republican corruption. His religious affiliations are with 
the Presbyterian church. He is a member of a number of organiza- 
tions, among them being: The Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, and four 
Yale secret societies; is a life member of the New York and the 
New Jersey Historical societies; of the Washington Association 
of New Jersey; Union League Club of New York City; the Mor- 
ristown Club; the Anti-Imperialist League; National Municipal 
League; National Economic League and others. In former years 



BIOGRAPHICAL EX'CYCLOPEDIA 399 

Mr. Woodruff was very fond of shooting and hoiiseboating, but he 
now confines his outdoor exercise to walking. 

In the literary field Mr. Woodruff is the author of "A Mone- 
tary Agreement," which was issued in pamphlet form by the New 
England Committee for the Promotion of Bimetalism; "A Single 
Standard for the World," Arena, March, 1898; "The Woodruffs of 
New Jersey," genealogical, 1909; and numerous newspaper letters 
anent the Philippine currency, Morris Canal and other questions. 
Mr. Woodruff thinks that the books which were of the greatest 
assistance in fitting him for his life work were those on "International 
Law and Civil Government." His motto is "Do and give." 

Mr. Woodruff has never married, and he and his sister live in 
their beautiful home in Morristown, New Jersey. His life, which 
has been characterized by a devotion to all that is pure and elevating, 
is worthy of emulation, and should serve as a source of inspiration to 
others. 



JOHN MILTON MORSE 



THE family of Morse in America and in Great Britain are 
supposed to be of Norman origin in England; also of 
ancient lineage reaching back almost to the time of William the 
Conqueror. There are many families of the name both in Great 
Britain and America; and at least four persons named Morse or 
Morss emigrated to Massachusetts during the early colonial period. 

Anthony Morse or Morss, the emigrant ancestor and founder 
of this particular branch of the Morse family in America, came 
from Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in the ship "James," which 
sailed from London, April 5, 1635; he settled at Newbury, Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony, in 1635, and was accompanied by his brother, 
William Morse, on the same ship. They were both registered as 
shoemakers. Anthony Morse built a house about half a mile south 
of the old cemetery, in what is called Newbury Old Town, on a 
slight eminence in a field, which is still called Morse's field, where 
traces of his house on the old residence site are still visible a few 
rods from the road. The last will of Anthony Morse was dated at 
Newbury, Massachusetts, April 28, 1680, in which he mentioned 
his wife and several children. He died there October 12, 1686, and 
had in all twelve children, from whom many descendants trace their 
origin. Anthony Morse belonged to that class of emigrants early 
known as Puritans, who strove to eliminate the corruptions of the 
Established Church while remaining within its communion. That 
he was a man of strong convictions and moral courage is evidenced 
by the fact that those traits were not only disclosed in his immediate 
offspring but persisted through five known generations; and so 
remarkable were those Morse characteristics that it was proverbially 
said of them, "it is as natural for the Morses to be religious as for 
certain other families to be vicious." 

Daniel Morse, a descendant of Anthony Morse, was born Sep- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 401 

tember i8, 1745, died February 25, 1826, iind lived at Bridgewater, 
New Hampshire. He married Merriam Hoyt, and among other 
children, had two sons: i. Colonel Joseph Morse, who lived at 
Salem; married Abigail Thomas, daughter of Jacob and Ruth (Per- 
kins) Thomas, February 23, 1809, at Sanbornton, New Hamp- 
shire. She was born May 1 i, 1789, died October 8, 1862; and was 
the mother of ten children, several of whom became distinguished 
public men. 2. Benjamin Morse, of whom more hereafter. 

Benjamin Morse, son of Daniel and Merriam (Hoyt) Morse, 
was born May i, 1786; died at Kendall, New York; and was a 
farmer and school teacher and pioneer during the early days of 
Western New York. He moved from Bridgewater, New Hamp- 
shire, first to Avon, New York, and then to Kendall, Orleans county, 
New York, where he resided many years. He married January 3, 
18 14, Elizabeth (commonly known as Eliza), daughter of Jacob 
and Ruth (Perkins) Thomas. She was born June 27, 1793, prob- 
ably at Bridgewater, New Hampshire, died February 27, 1885, at 
Kentiall, New York, and was descended from the Thomas family 
of Hampton and Sanbornton, New Hampshire; also from the 
Perkins family of Sanbornton, New Hampshire. 

The "Town History of Hampton, New Hampshire," refers 
to Jonathan Thomas, born October 5, 171 2, who was the son of 
Captain Benjamin Thomas; and the latter a son of James and 
Martha (Goddard) Thomas, of Dover, New Hampshire. Captain 
Benjamin Thomas was wounded during the siege of Louisburg, and 
drew a pension of t\venty pounds for colonial war ser\^ice. Jonathan 
Thomas, of Hampton, was assessor of the town in 1738, and prob- 
ably had a son Jonathan, who was assessor of Sanbornton, New 
Hampshire, from 1775 to 1783; and he had a son, Jacob Thomas, 
born January 31, 1763, at Hampton, New Hampshire; the latter 
married Ruth Perkins, October 13, 1781;, at Sanbornton, New 
Hampshire. She was the daughter of Master Abraham Perkins, of 
Sanbornton, New Hampshire; was born there July 21, 1764, and 

NO— 26 



402 BIOGRAPHICAL EiXCYCLOPEDIA 

died November 22, 1852, at Kendall, New York, in the home of 
her daughter, Eliza Morse. She was described as "stately and dig- 
nified, of good size, with soft brown hair, greyish eyes, and a promi- 
nent nose;" also, as a "devoted Christian and a constant Bible 
reader." 1 hese were sterling qualities inherited from her honored 
father. Master Abraham Perkins. He was fifth in descent from 
John Perkins, born in England, about 1590, came to Massachusetts 
Bay Colony in 1630, admitted as freeman of Ipswich, Massachu- 
setts, in 1632, was a representative of the town in 1636, died there 
in 1664; and from whom the Ipswich family sprang. 

Issue of Eliza Thomas-Morse, wife of Benjamin IVlorse, 
namely: i. Joseph Perkins Morse, born November 13, 18 14, at 
Avon, New York; died February' 14, 1890, in Geneva township. 
Van Buren county, Michigan; left surviving issue. 2. Benjamin 
Bartlett Morse, born November 23, 18 16, at Kendall, Orleans 
county, New York; died January 17, 1890, there. He was the first 
white child born at Kendall, New York; and had issue. 3. Eliz- 
abeth Jane Morse, born April i, 1819; married John Oliver, of 
Waukesha, Wisconsin; and had surviving issue. 4. Franklin Moses 
Morse, born April 6, 1821, at Kendall; had issue, who lived in 
Orleans county. New York. 5. Esther Alvira Morse, born October 
13, 1823, died August 7, 1825. 6. Electa Morse, born April 13, 
1826; married Silas Perry, and lived at Augusta, Eau Claire county, 
Wisconsin. 7. Edna Lavina Morse, born November 10, 1828; 
married, July 4, 1S53, Edward Wing Mudge. 8. John .Milton 
Morse, of whom more hereafter. 

John Milton Morse, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth or Elira 
(Thomas) Morse, was born November 25, 1830, at Kendall, 
Orleans county. New York. His parents were pioneers in that 
locality, having moved hither in 18 14 from Northern New Hamp- 
shire, and found the country an almost unbroken wilderness, in the 
midst of which they formed a home, erected a rude log cabin and 
cleared the land, and there brought up their family. John Milton 
Morse was the youngest of eight children, and received such educa- 



lUOGRAPIlICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 403 

tion as was aftorded by the primitive conditions of Western New 
York at that time. He toiled on his father's farm until he was 
eighteen years old, with few opportunities for attending school, and 
read such books, together with other literature that came to hand, 
by the fitful Hame of a lightsvood tire or a tallow dip that sputtered 
in the gloaming. He then attended spring and fall school some five 
years, and worked on his father's tarm durmg the haying and the 
harvesting between times, and taught school during the winter 
months. The farm work was regarded as a necessary toughening 
process that would better fit him for the active duties of life. He 
had ambition for a classical education, and attended the Kendall 
Union School, which was followed by a term or two at the Brockport 
Academy; then he attended the Albion Academy, and finally the 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, New York; but, wearying of 
the long and arduous task, he finally gave up the struggle and began 
a commercial career. 

From 1855 to the fall of 1858 he served as bookkeeper and 
cashier in George H. Sickels' dry goods store at Albion, Orleans 
county. New York. He then came to New York City and secured 
a position as assistant bookkeeper of the Murphy & Harris whole- 
sale dry goods firm ; he continued with them for several years, during 
which time he was advanced to head bookkeeper and cashier; then 
he went with Halstead, Haines & Company, one year as book- 
keeper; and with Coe, Shennehon & De Witt, a wholesale dry goods 
house in New York, as bookkeeper and cashier, until January i, 
1868. On the last mentioned date he became private bookkeeper 
and cashier to Samuel Hawk, proprietor of the St. Nicholas Hotel, 
New York City. In 1878 he went to the Windsor Hotel as private 
bookkeeper and cashier for Hawk & Wetherbee, at Fifth avenue and 
Forty-eighth street. New York City. Having built the Hotel Man- 
hattan at the corner of Madison avenue and Forty-second street, 
New York City, they organized as a corporation and opened that 
hotel to the public, October 12, 1896. Mr. Morse has continued 



404 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

with them, as a stockholder, director and secretary, during all the 
intervening years. 

In the spring of 1870 Mr. Morse became a resident of Passaic, 
Passaic county, New Jersey, and built a residence at the corner of 
Ascension and High streets in 1875, where he still resides. He was 
elected a member of the City Council of Passaic, and served for 
seven years from 1879 to 1886; was a member of the Passaic 
Board of Education five years from 1883 to 1887, inclusive; and 
proved himself to be an able and conscientious worker for the wel- 
fare of the community. He is a Republican in political faith, 
and a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Passaic, New 
Jersey; he was an elder of that church for eleven years, and superin- 
tendent of the Sunday-school for five years. His recreation is chess 
and cards in moderation; and he advocates the Biblical injunction of 
"Be ye temperate in all things," not only in amusements but in labor 
as well. 

John Milton Morse married (first) April 6, 1854, Sylvia A. 
Fletcher Stewart, of Madison, Wisconsin, who died January i, 
1 90 1, without issue, in Passaic, New Jersey. He married (second) 
April 27, 1904, Elizabeth Jane, daughter of John F. and Ann Jane 
Wilson, at New York, New York; no issue. 

In early life he aspired to secure a college education and to 
enter one of the learned professions; however, these achievements 
were not realized through circumstances which placed them beyond 
his reach, though he did not abandon study altogether for commer- 
cial life; but he has continued to think and treasure beautiful 
thoughts. In these he has given expression to that deep yearning of 
soul that cannot be satiated by the sordid elements of commercial 
life; he has been like the bird enclosed within a gilded cage; he 
has at times given voice to poetic song that welled up from his 
soul's depths as the gushing of an overflowing fountain. These 
minstrel lays and pastoral gems of verse he has given to the world 
under title of "Memories of Childhood, and Other Poems," pub- 
lished in 1895; and in "Anacaona and other Poems," in 1903. His 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 405 

poetic fancies disclose a genial sunny mind as full of sunny thoughts, 
irrepressible in his prosaic surroundings, as are the songs of the 
robin that he describes. There is deep abiding religious faith in the 
flow of words that clearly shows the influence of heredity upon his 
life. He wanders by the river side along its winding way, and draws 
beautiful lessons of God's eternal love from its gliding majesty and 
rythmic waterfalls; or, perchance, wends his way over the mountain 
drive he loved so well, and views the beauty of Nature's panorama, 
spread out before him in a splendid vision; and there he pauses to 
drink in the ethereal scene ere the evening shades fall, which shall 
soon envelop that life forever. 

The following poem, written in May, 19 13, makes a fitting 
close to this narrative: 

THE TWO HOMES. 

Twas a lowly log-cabin where first 

We beheld our dear mother's sweet face. 

On the bank of a stream it was built ; 
O. how well I remember the place. 

Very near where it stood, is a well. 

And with that as a guide — 
its location we tell 

When the country was new, it was built 

With the lumber the forest supplied. 
They could quickly select from the best, 

For the trees on the land, were its pride. 
Sturdy arms, with an axe, laid them low — 
Then they soon were prepared 
in the cabin to go. 

This the home — where we children were reared, 
This the place, that to us was most dear. 

But 'tis gone ; not a vestige remains ! 
Change is written on everything here. 

I alone of them all now abide, 

And I'm waiting- — just waiting 
the turn of the tide. 



406 BIOGRAPHICAL EX'CYCLOPEDIA 



Over all, shine the stars, as of yore, 

Changing not in the slightest degree. 

Over all, reigns the God we adore. 

And His merciful care we can see. 

We shall know all His wonderful love, 

When we go to our home 

in the mansion above. 

In this hope we can rest ; for His word 
Is as fixed as the stars of the night. 

This the anchor that holds — when the storm 
Wildly dashes and howls in its might ! 

Storms may rage — but the anchor holds fast, 

And we know we shall reach 
a safe harbor at last. 

In that harbor of peace is the home 

Where the faint and the weary may rest ; 
Where the changes of time never come ; 

'Tis the bright, joyous home of the blest. 
There in safety we'll ever abide — 
And we never will wait 

for the turn of the tide. 

— John M. Morse. 
Passaic, N. J., May i6, 1913. 




HENRY SNOWDEN HAINES 



TlWl essential conditions of human life are, generally speaking, 
ever the same, and the surroundings of individuals have 
comparatixely slight differences. When one man of a distinct class 
outstrips his fellows on the highroad to success there must be 
distinct individual characteristics to have brought about this result. 
The success achieved by Henry Snowden Haines, of Burlington, 
New Jersey, is largely due to his individual energy and force of 
character, combined with study and application of an unusually high 
order. His son, Isaac Snowden Haines, has followed with com- 
mendable ability in his father's footsteps. 

Henry Snowden Haines was born April 25, 1835. Having 
obtained his degree as Civil Engineer, it was not long before he had 
demonstrated his capability in his chosen profession and, in due 
course of time, he was appointed surveyor-general of the Western 
Division of New Jersey. He has also ser\ed as city engineer of 
Burlington, New Jersey, and other municipalities. Mr. Haines 
married, December 24, 1864, Josephine M. Roach. 

Isaac Snowden Haines, son of Henry Snowden and Josephine 
M. (Roach) Haines, was born in Philadelphia, December i, 1865. 
When he was three years of age his parents removed to Burlington, 
New Jersey, in which city he attended the public schools and college, 
and was graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1879. Two years 
were then spent in attendance at the Farnum Preparatory School, 
a branch of the State Normal School. Shortly after his graduation 
he accepted a position as office boy with Samuel Bunting Sons & Com- 
pany, of Philadelphia, commission merchants, and in the following 
year, 1882, became bookkeeper in the Burlington Stove and Heater 
Company, Foundry, Burlington, New Jersey. Becoming acquainted 
with Andrew H. McNcal, manufacturer of cast iron pipe in Bur- 
lington, Mr. Haines accepted a responsible position with him in 



408 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

May, 1883, and after the incorporation of the McNeal Pipe and 
Foundry Company in 1886, he became a director in this corporation, 
and was elected secretary and treasurer, serving in this office until 
1899, when the plant was sold to the United States Cast Iron Pipe 
and Foundry Company, when he remained as assistant resident man- 
ager, Mr. McNeal being the manager, until toward the close of 
1902. For a period of twenty-five years he was director and treas- 
urer of all the associated companies controlled by Mr. McNeal and 
himself, until the death of the former in 1908. Mr. Haines became 
a hydraulic engineer and has been active in the construction of 
water works in various parts of the country, and was an associate 
member of the New England Water Works Association. He 
became a director in the Mechanics National Bank of Burlington in 
1 898, was elected to the position of cashier in 1901;, and has filled this 
responsible office since that time. He is the owner of the Enter- 
prise Company, printers and publishers of the "Daily Enterprise," 
and the "New Jersey Enterprise," the latter a weekly publication; 
president of the Burlington County Transit Company, Western 
Maryland Coal and Coke Company, Youghiogheny Power Com- 
pany; he is a director in the Stuart and Peterson Company, Flexo- 
type Company, Standard Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company, 
Burlington Sewerage Company, Neidich Process Company, Bur- 
lington Electric Light and Power Company, Mechanics National 
Bank, Board of Trade, and several others. 

For many years he has been officially connected with the fol- 
lowing organizations: Trustee of the First Presbyterian Church; 
director in the Young Men's Christian Association; director and sec- 
retary of the Society for the Prevention of Cnieltv to Animals; 
clerk, Company A, Sixth Regiment. National Guard State of New 
Jersey, chairman of the Tuberculosis Committee; superintendent of 
the East Burlington Sunday-school; treasurer and director of the 
Farmers and Mechanics Building and Loan Association; member 
of the Council of Proprietors of West New Jersey. His affiliation 
with secret societies and social organizations is as follows: Bur- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 409 

lington Lodge, No. 32, Free and Accepted Masons, and he was 
worshipful master in 1892; Boudinot Chapter, No. 3. Royal Arch 
Masons, and was Royal Arch captain in 1892; Helena Com- 
mander}', No. 3, Knights Templar; Phoenix Lodge, No. 92, Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows; New York Athletic Club; Manu- 
facturers' Club, i'hiladelphia; Peahala Club of Long Beach, New 
Jersey. 

Mr. Haines is a Republican Conser\ative, and has always taken 
a deep interest in the welfare of Burlington. He was appointed the 
Collector of Customs at Burlington by President Roosevelt, and 
was president of the Burlington Common Council 1892, 1906, 
1907, 1 90S, 1909 and 1910. He has served as a member of the 
Republican County Committee, and was chairman of the State Com- 
mission on Toll Bridges. He has always taken a deep interest in 
the cause of education and, while a member of the Burlington Board 
of Education, the entire system was revised, new buildings were 
erected, old ones remodeled, and a high school constructed. Dur- 
ing his term of office the schools were brought to their present 
state of efficiency. Many improvements were also made in the city 
while he was a member of the Common Council, among them being 
the new filtration plant for the water supply, and the remodeling 
of the city hall. At the annual meeting of the New Jersey Bankers' 
Association, 19 10, Mr. Haines was elected vice-president for that 
State in the American Bankers' Association. 

Mr. Haines married in St. Barnabas Church, Burlington, New 
Jersey, July 10, 1902, Rachel Gordon, daughter of Samuel and 
Nancy Bentley, formerly of Yorkshire, England. They have chil- 
dren: Josephine Rachel, born July 11, 1903; L Snowden (3d), 
October 28, 1904; Samuel Bentley, March 15, 1906; Henry Snow- 
den (2nd), July 15, 1907; Martha Bentley, September 26, 1908; 
Richard Gordon, June 18, 1912. 



JAMES FOWLER RUSLING 



THE Rusling family from whom James Fowler Rusling is 
descended are probably of Saxon origin, in England. Accord- 
ing to old parish registers in Lincolnshire and elsewhere in England, 
the name was variously spelled as Ruslyng, Ruslinge, Ruslin, Russlin 
and Russelin; also, the Saxon kings had a bodyguard called Rust- 
lingas, which may account for the origin of the name. In modern 
times, both in Great Britain and in the United States, it is commonly 
spelled Rusling. 

The Trenton, New Jersey, family of Ruslings originated in 
Lincolnshire, just across the Humber river, and opposite Kingston- 
upon-Hull, as it is locally known. Robert and Christina Rusling 
lived in Lincolnshire parish, opposite Hull, and were esteemed as 
pious members of the Baptist church there. They had a family of 
eight children, namely: William Rusling; James Rusling, of whom 
see forward; Anna Rusling; Robert Rusling; Hannah Rusling; 
Thomas Rusling; George Rusling; Ann Rusling. Christina Rusling, 
the mother of the above-mentioned children, died in 1776; and 
Robert Rusling married (second) Sarah Chimney, in 1779, who 
had issue: Katherine Rusling, Edmond Rusling. 

James Rusling, son and second child of Robert and Christina 
Rusling, was born July 26, 1762, at York, Lincolnshire, England. 
At eleven years of age or thereabouts he was apprenticed to William 
Robinson, a village storekeeper at Winteringham, a small village 
about ten miles south of Hull. When about eighteen years of age 
he became a convert to the teachings of John Wesley, through the 
influence of his uncle, George Rusling; and soon afterward united 
with the Wesleyan Methodist church at Winteringham. From the 
parish records of Winterton, another nearby village, it is recorded 
that James Rusling married Mary Fowler, daughter of Joseph 
Fowler, May i<;, 1787; and about the same time he was engaged 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 411 

in a mercantile business at Scunthorpe, but afterward removed to 
Hull, England, where he continued in trade until his departure for 
America in July, 1795. He arrived in New York with his family 
after a ten-weeks voyage, and October 12, 1796, purchased land 
in the noted "Beswick Tract" near Hackettstown, New Jersey, 
where the family resided for many years thereafter. James and 
Mary (Fowler) Rusling had children as follows: Joseph Rusling; 
James Rusling; William Rusling; Hannah Fowler Rusling; Ger- 
shom Rusling, of whom see forward; Segwick Rusling; Mary Eliz- 
abeth Rusling. Mar)' Fowler-Rusling was born November 23, 
1776, at Winterton, in England; she died July 25, 1S09, at Xew- 
burgh. New Jersey; and James Rusling married (second) Hannah 
Rose, nee Frazer, April 2, 18 10, who had issue, four children. He 
died August 1 1, 1826, at Newburgh, New Jersey. 

Gershom Rusling, son of James and Mary (Fowler) Rusling, 
was born September i, 1796, in New York City, and died at Tren- 
ton, New Jersey, February 5, 1881, where the family resided for 
many years. He was born soon after his parents reached America, 
and, by reason of his father's early misfortunes in the "Beswick" 
land purchase, he received but little schooling. He worked on his 
father's farm and clerked in his store until he was twenty-five 
years or more of age. He then travelled to Ohio and other western 
States, returned to New Jersey, married, and settled at Washington, 
where he amassed a small fortune; and about 1840 retired from 
business. He moved from Washington to Cherryville, Hunterdon 
county. New Jersey, in 1844; and in 1845 ^° Trenton, where he 
lived until his death. He married (first) Eliza Budd Hankinson 
daughter of Major Henry Hankinson, of Washington, New Jersey 
in March, 1825, at Washington. She was born April 13, 1803, at 
Asbury, New Jersey, died December 3, 1838, at Washington, New 
Jersey; and had issue, namely: William McCuIlough Henry Haw 
kinson Rusling; Ann Maria Rusling; Emma Rusling; Gershom 
Rusling; James Fowler Rusling, of whom see forward; John P. B 
Rusling; Eliza Keturah Rusling. Gershom Rusling married (sec 



412 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

ond) Hannah Matthews, July 7, 1841, who was born October 22, 
1786, at Mount Pleasant, New Jersey; and died May 19, 1858, at 
Trenton, New Jersey; no issue. He married (third) Sarah Hill, 
December 13, i860, who was born September 18, 18 16, at Flem- 
ington, New Jersey, and died April 28, 1887, at Newark, New 
Jersey, without issue. Gershom Rusling was a merchant and State 
Inspector of the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton, New Jersey. 

James Fowler Rusling, son of Gershom and Eliza Budd (Han- 
kinson) Rusling, was born April 14, 1834, at Washington, Warren 
county. New Jersey. He received elementary instniction in Tren- 
ton, New Jersey, private schools; attended Trenton Academy, and 
in 1850 entered Pennington Seminary at Pennington, New Jersey, 
from which he graduated in 1852 with first honors; and then 
attended Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which 
he graduated in 1854 as A. B., with second honors, and in 1857, 
A. M.; also received in 1890 the honorary degree of LL. D. there- 
from. In 1854 he was elected Professor of Natural Science at 
Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pennsylvania; in 1857 was 
admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar, and in 1859 to the New Jersey 
Bar; and was admitted to practice in the United States Courts at 
Trenton, New Jersey, in 1867. About 1859 he was appointed 
Master in Chancery and Notary Public at Trenton, New Jersey; and 
has practiced in the New Jersey State Courts, Pennsylvania Courts, 
and United States Courts since that time. 

James Fowler Rusling enlisted in 1861 in the United States 
volunteer army; and served throughout the Civil War, and until 
September, 1867, more than two years thereafter. In August, 1861, 
he was appointed first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster of the 
Fifth New Jersey Regiment; was promoted five times upon the 
recommendations of Generals Patterson, Mott, Sickles, Hooker, 
McClellan, Meade, Thomas, Sherman and Grant; and served in the 
several grades of regimental, brigade, division and corps officer; also 
as an officer in the Army and Department Headquarters, and in the 
General Headquarters of the United States Army. He was retired 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 413 

from scrv'ice witli the rank of brevet brigadier-general ol United 
States Volunteers for "meritorious and distinguished services ren- 
dered in the war from 1861 to 1865;" and with the further dis- 
tinction of having never been taken a prisoner or received a wound 
in action. He was an active participant in the battles of Yorktown, 
Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Glendale, Malvern Hill, 
Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Rappahannock 
Station, and Bristoe, all in Virginia; the battles of Williamsport, 
Maryland; Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, Tennessee; 
Atlanta, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Hell Canyon, Arizona. 
He served in the following important movements, viz. : McClel- 
lan's Peninsular Campaign; Pope's advance in Northern Virginia 
that resulted in the battle of Manassas, or Second Bull Run; Burn- 
side's advance on Fredericksburg, Virginia, late in 1862; Hooker's 
campaign that resulted in the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia; 
Meade's movement to check Lee in Pennsylvania, which eventuated 
in the battle of Gettysburg; Grant's campaign against Chattanooga 
and Lookout Mountain; Sherman's advance to Atlanta, Georgia, 
and Thomas' Nashville (Tennessee) campaign. 

After retiring from military service he returned to Trenton, 
New Jersey, and again became active in the practice of law. He 
was county solicitor of Mercer county. New Jersey, in 1861, which 
position he resigned to enter the army. In 1869 he was appointed 
United States Pension Agent for New Jersey by President Grant; 
and was later reappointed to the same office, in which he served 
until 1877, when the New Jersey Pension Agency was abolished by 
consolidation with another division. He was appointed commis- 
sioner to advise upon the propriety of the State acquiring certain 
lands at Englishtown, New Jersey, upon which to erect an Asylum 
for the Blind, in 1895, by Governor Werts; and in 1896 was 
appointed on a commission to investigate taxation in New Jersey, by 
Governor John W. Griggs. He was appointed commissioner for 
New Jersey to the Tennessee Centennial at Nashville in 1897, ^"^ 



414 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

became president of the New Jersey Centennial Exposition Commis- 
sion there. 

During the interim between 1869 and 1889, General Rusling 
organized the Linden Park Land Association, the Hamilton Avenue 
Land Association, the Greenwood Avenue and East State Street 
Land Association, and the Broad Street Park Land Association, all 
of Trenton, New Jersey; and served as treasurer and solicitor for 
each of said organizations. 

Not only was General Rusling a distinguished soldier in the 
service of his country, but during the latter years of his life he 
became author of various literary productions which treat of local 
history and the genealogy of the Rusling family in America. He is 
the author of "Across America, or the Great West and the Pacific 
Coast," published in 1874, by Shelden & Company, New York; 
"History of the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Tren- 
ton, New Jersey," 1885, by McCrellish & Quigley, of Trenton, New 
Jersey; "History of Pennington Seminary," in 1890, by the same 
publishers; "Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days," published 
in 1899, by Eaton & Mains, New York; "European Days and 
Ways," an account of a tour through Europe in 1899, published in 
1902, by Jennings & Pye, Cincinnati, Ohio; and a "History of the 
Rusling Family" in 1907, by J. B. Lippincott & Company, Philadel- 
phia. The production entitled "Across America" is a narrative 
account of the author's observations and adventures in the West 
during the years of 1866 and i 867, while sen'ing as inspector of the 
United States army; and has passed through a second edition. In 
1889 he delivered a Fourth of July historical address at Ocean 
Grove, New Jersey; and in 1896 he read a paper before the New 
Jersey Society of Sons of the American Revolution, at Asbury Park, 
New Jersey, on the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey. 

In connection, it may be added that during the period from 
1895 to 1900, General Rusling delivered an address on the "March 
of Methodism" at the following named places, viz.: Camden, x\tlan- 
tic Cit\', Ocean Grove and Trenton, New Jersey; at Bridgeport, 



r.lOCRAIMlICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 415 

Comiecticut; Cle\eland, Ohio; Lynn, Massachusetts; Waterville, 
Maine; Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, 
Maryland; Washington, D. C; and at other places. In 1896 he 
was elected lay delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church for New Jersey, which met at Cleveland, Ohio; 
and he del;\"ered the laymen's response to an aildress of welcome in 
that city. Himself and all members of his family are members of 
the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of Trenton, New Jer- 
sey. In politics he is a Republican, and a member of the local 
Republican Club, of Trenton. 

James Fowler Rusling married (first) Mary Freeman Winner, 
daughter of the Rev. Isaac Winner, D. D., and Mary (Freeman) 
Winner, January i, 1858, at Pennington, New Jersey. He mar- 
ried (second) Emily Elizabeth Wood, daughter of Isaac Wood and 
Emily Hannah Wood, June 30, 1870, at Trenton, New Jersey. 
Issue of Emily Elizabeth Wood, two children, namely: James 
Wood Rusling, born May 31, 1874, at Trenton; and Emily Wells 
Rusling, born October iS, 1884, at Trenton, New Jersey, married 
Hon. Arthur L. Bates, Member of Congress, of Meadville, Penn- 
sylvania, October 20, 1909, and resides at Meadville. Mary Free- 
man Winner, first wife, was born April 12, 1838, died April 19, 
1858, and is interred at Pennington, New Jersey. Emilv Elizabeth 
Wood, second wife, was born December 29, 1847, at Trenton, New- 
Jersey. 



GENERAL ENOCH DOUGHTY 



THE Doughty family was first represented in America by Ed- 
ward Dotey, or Doughty, one of the passengers of the 
"Mayflower," and the fortieth signer of the compact, according to 
Bradford's history and the Mayflower annals. It is uncertain as to 
whether he was married before leaving England, or soon after his 
arrival in America. He was noted as an active, energetic man, 
whose descendants have followed in his steps, and have been promi- 
nent in the patriotic welfare of their country. The New Jersey 
branch of the family came by way of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
and purchased the wooded land back of Absecom, Atlantic county, 
New Jersey, about 1750. 

By will dated 1766, approved 1770, Edward Doughty leaves 
the land to his wife Margaret and children — Mary Lee, Margaret 
Risley, Rebecca, Edward Jr., Robert, Thomas, Abner, Jonathan and 
John. His son Jonathan married Hannah Ingersoll, and their son 
Abner, born October, 1751;, married Leah Risley Holmes, widow 
of Captain James Holmes, of the Continental army, killed at the 
battle of Princeton. They were married June 20, 1783, at Old 
Swedes Church, Philadelphia. Abner Doughty was a land owner 
by inheritance, served in the Revolutioary War as a private in the 
New Jersey militia. He was educated by a tutor, son of Lord Lum- 
ley (a redemptionist purchased at Philadelphia by Jonathan 
Doughty, father of Abner, who died and was buried in the family 
lot). Abner Doughty was quite a student of astronomy, and his 
quadrant is still in the possession of Miss Sarah N. Doughty. Leah 
Risley was a descendant of Richard Risley, of Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, of Pieter van Couwenhover (or Conover), of New 
Amsterdam, and also the Adamses, of Massachusetts. 

General Enoch Doughty, son of Abner and Leah (Risley- 
Holmes) Doughty, was born March 4, 1792, in Absecom, Atlantic 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 417 

county, New Jersey. He was educated at home by a private tutor. 
An inheritance in landed estate from his father enabled him to 
escape business cares, but tilled up his time with the details of success- 
ful management of extensive property and the many interests 
attached thereto. His property consisted of some twenty to thirty 
thousand acres of land near Absecom, and he owned sawmills and 
was interested in lumbering. Perceiving the difficulties which 
existed at that day in the handling of timber and farm products, he 
decided to have a railroad built to connect that portion of New 
Jersey with the city of Philadelphia. With this project in view, he 
became one of the men who joined Dr. Pitney, of Atlantic City, in 
his application to the legislature of New Jersey in 1851 for a char- 
ter to build a railroad between Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Dr. 
Pitney's first effort was fruitless, but nothing daunted, he tried again 
the following year, at Trenton. This time he was successful, and 
the charter was procured March 19, 1852. From this basis the 
Camden & Atlantic railroad was organized June 4, 1854. In all 
these efforts General Doughty took an active part and assisted 
materially in the fulfillment of the scheme. He was a director of 
the railroad, and was otherwise interested in its wise management 
as the line passed through eleven miles of his property. He was 
also interested in the Camden & Atlantic Land Company, which 
was incorporated March 10, 1853, ^^^ ^^^^ one of the directors of 
that company from 1853, until his death in April, 1871. 

General Doughty belonged to the Democratic party, and was 
sheriff of Gloucester county in 1824, when that county was com- 
posed of Camden, Atlantic and Gloucester counties. He was hon- 
ored many times by State and county officials by receiving appoint- 
ments to represent his locality in important gatherings. As a soldier 
in the State militia of Gloucester county in the war of 18 12-15, 
General Doughty was promoted successively from the rank of lieu- 
tenant to captain, major and brevet brigadier-general. He was the 
official who welcomed and escorted General de Lafayette in 1824, 

NC-27 



418 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

during his visit to New Jersey. While General Doughty was born 
in an Episcopalian family and christened in Christ Church, Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, he became in later years a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, because the denomination to which 
he belonged v»as not represented in that locality. 

On January 15, 18 16, General Enoch Doughty married, at 
Port Republic, New Jersey, with Rev. James Blaclonan officiating, 
Charlotte, daughter of Parker and Martha (Leek) Clark. The 
Clark family, from which Charlotte (Clark) Doughty descended, 
came to New Jersey from Connecticut in 1730. Mrs. Doughty's 
father, Parker Clark, was born in 1764, and served as a private 
in the war of 18 12. The New Jersey Clark family has some of the 
most distinguished families in New England in its line, embracing 
among others the Parkers, Buckinghams and Pratts, and many mem- 
bers have held high positions as churchmen, town councilmen, 
judges, etc. Children of General Enoch Doughty were: John H., 
married Arabella Somers; Rebecca Wilson; Abigail Hugg, married 
David Somers Blackman; Martha A.; Leah Risley; Hannah 
Holmes; Enoch Alpheus; and Sarah Nathalie, referred to below. 

Sarah Nathalie Doughty, daughter of General Enoch and 
Charlotte (Clark) Doughty, was born at Absecom, Atlantic county, 
New Jersey. Her education was completed at St. Thomas Hnll, 
Flushing, Long Island. In politics she follows her father, believing 
in the tenets of the Democratic party. Miss Doughty is deeply 
interested in all efforts to preserve the historical records and relics 
of her State, and has become a prominent factor in such work by 
joining various associations formed for such a purpose. She is a 
member of the Colonial Dames, the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, the Daughters of 18 12, the Mary Washington Monu- 
ment Association, the George Washington Memorial Association, 
the Revolutionary Society of New Jersey, the Historical Society of 
New Jersey, and the Pocahontas Society. In 1895 she organized 
the first chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution south 
of Trenton, and named it in honor of General de Lafavette. 




Sarah N. Doughty 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 419 

Governor Fort appointed Miss Doughty as a committee of one 
to erect a monument at Chestnut Neck, New Jersey, in commemora- 
tion of a battle of the Revolutionary War fought on that spot Octo- 
ber 6, 1778. Besides her interest in patriotic organizations, she is 
active in religious and charitable work. 

The old Doughty homestead, at Doughty Mills, above Abse- 
com, a valuable property in that part of Atlantic county, New Jer- 
sey, is now in Miss Doughty's possession, coming to her as an inher- 
itance from her father, General Enoch Doughty. 



t^ 






GEORGE ALBERT ALLINSON 



THERE is no more honorable or highly esteemed representa- 
tive of the business and public interests of the town of Bur- 
lington, New Jersey, than George Albert Allinson, ex-mayor of the 
town, whose whole life has been spent in the city of his birth, and 
whose interests he has most thoroughly at heart. His family has 
been resident in Burlington for many generations and has been 
closely connected with the history of the county. Abraham R. 
Allinson, father of the Mr. Allinson of this sketch, was the capable 
incumbent of several town offices, and was an excellent man of busi- 
ness. 

George Albert Allinson was born in Burlington, New Jersey, 
July 9, 1850. Public and private schools in his native city furnished 
his education, and he was then sent to Philadelphia to learn the 
carpenter's trade. He made a study of architecture at the same 
time and, upon his return to his native city, established himself in 
this profession, in which he has been remarkably successful. A 
number of the finest and most beautiful structures in and around 
Burlington have been designed and erected by Mr. Allinson, and 
his work was in great demand until his retirement from active busi- 
ness life in this direction in 1902. He has, however, remained 
active in a variety of other directions, and is connected with a num- 
ber of enterprises. For considerable more than thirty years he has 
been the superintendent and treasurer of the Burlington Water 
Company, and his management of affairs has contributed largely to 
the success of this undertaking. He also holds official position in 
the following corporations: Vice-president of the Mechanics' Na- 
tional Bank; a director of the Burlington City Loan & Trust Com- 
pany; and secretary of the City of Burlington Loan & Building 
Association, an office he has also filled for more than thirty years. 
His political affiliations have always been with the Democratic 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 421 

party, and during the nine years he served as a member of the city 
common council, he was president of that body for eight years; he 
held the office of city clerk of Burlington, 1876-77. He was elected 
mayor of Burlington in 1904, this fact alone proving the worth of 
his administration, which was conducted on strictly business lines. 
The fraternal connections of Mr. AUinson are as follows: 
Past master of Burlington Lodge, No. 32, Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons; Boudinot Chapter, No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; Helena Com- 
mandery, No. 3, Knights Templar; Lulu Temple, Ancient Arabic 
Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Philadelphia; Hope Lodge, 
No. 13, Knights of Pythias; Phoenix Lodge, No. 92, Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past grand; Leni Lenape 
Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, of which he is past sachem 
and past deputy sachem; Mount Holly Lodge, No. 848, Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Allinson is unmarried. He is 
esteemed for his sterling qualities, his fearless loyalty to his honest 
convictions, and his clear-headedness, discretion and tact. 



WALTER 3IADDEN, M. D. 



DR. WALTER MADDEN, of Trenton, New Jersey, is one 
of those scholarly physicians whose deep research into the 
fields of medicine has peculiarly fitted him for the practice of his 
chosen profession. That tribute of respect and admiration which 
is always justly given to those men who have worked their way to 
positions of prominence in the community, is due him, and his ability 
is amply attested by the success he has achieved. 

He is of the fifth generation in descent from Cooper Madden, 
the immigrant ancestor, who came to this country from Ireland 
prior to 1780, and settled at Port Elizabeth, Cumberland county, 
New Jersey, where he engaged in the manufacture of glass. His 
son, Hosea Madden, married Catherine, a daughter of Joseph 
Stanger, who manufactured the first window glass ever made in 
New Jersey. Hosea F., son of Hosea and Sarah (Stanger) Mad- 
den, was in office as the sheriff of Atlantic county, New Jersey, and 
represented the same county as a senator. Thomas Burch Madden, 
his son, was for many years deputy and now the principal keeper of 
the New Jersey State Prison, was elder and trustee of the Second 
Presbyterian Church, and married Eleanor Steelman. 

Dr. Walter Madden, son of Thomas Burch and Eleanor (Steel- 
man) Madden, was born at Tuckahoe, Atlantic county, New Jersey, 
July 10, 1873. When he was three years of age his parents took up 
their residence in the city of Trenton, New Jersey, with which city 
all of his later life has been identified. After completing his pre- 
paratory education in the public schools of Trenton, he matriculated 
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, Maryland, 
and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1897, with 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He at once established himself 
in the active practice of his profession in the city of Trenton, where 
he has gained the confidence of a large circle of patients, and enjoys 




)r,,LitLA/ 7?l,<z.£.:^^^^^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 423 

the esteem of his colleagues as well. In the years 1898 and 1899 
he was in office as the city physician of Trenton. In political matters 
he affiliates with the Democratic party, and he served as a member 
of the Common Council in 1902-03, and in 1904-05, and has also 
been a member of the committee on railroads, bridges and ordi- 
nances. He was elected mayor of Trenton in 1908, and again in 
19 10. He resigned in 191 1, and was elected sheriff of Mercer 
county, i\ew Jersey, which position he now tills. His religious 
adherence is given to the Second Presbyterian Church. 

Dr. Madden married Minnie J. Mentzler, and they have one 
sen: Thomas H. The father of Mrs. Madden, Andrew Mentzler, 
a native ot Berlin, Germany, died in Trenton, New Jersey, February 
29, 1904, at the age of seventy years. In Germany he had studied 
as a veterinary surgeon and, upon his arrival in this country, in 
1852, found employment in the machine shop of Charles Carr, and 
subsequently was in the employ of the Old Ambov Railroad Com- 
pany. His father, Professor John Ment:',ler, ni Berlin College, 
married Wilhelmina Hoffman, also of German ancestry. 

Dr. Madden is a member of a number of organizations of 
varied character, among them being the following: County Medical 
Society; New Jersey State Medical Society; American Medical 
Association; Mercer Lodge, No. 50, Free and Accepted Masons, 
and he has taken the thirty-second degree; Ancient Arabic Order 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; the encampment of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows; Knights of Pythias; Knights of Khorassan; 
Fraternal Order of Eagles; Brotherhood of America, No. 40; 
Social Turn Verein; Liedertafe! Singing Society; the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks; and the Order of Moose. Dr. Mad- 
den is a close student, and many hours are spent in his extensive 
library. He enjoys more than a merely local reputation, and is 
considered as one of the most capable physicians of Trenton. 



VERNON ROYLE 



VERNON ROYLE, inventor and manufacturer, is a native 
and lifelong resident of Paterson, New Jersey. He was 
born June 9, 1846, the eldest son of the late John Royle, Senior, who 
was long identified with the machinists' trade in Paterson. The 
senior Mr. Royle was Enghsh by birth, while Vernon Royle's 
mother was a native of Scotland. 

Mr. Royle's boyhood included several years' attendance at the 
local schools, interspersed with various minor employments. At 
fourteen years of age he became an errand boy in the engravers' 
joining establishment of Mr. Heber Wells, of New York City. 
Here he first came to know the routing machine, which was in those 
days a crude device in a strictly elemental state of development. 
Important use was made of this machine in the business of Mr. 
Wells, of whom it may be said that he was a pioneer in using this 
method of deepening the depressed portions of engravings, there 
being no other routing machine at that time doing this class of work 
for which it has since become so indispensable. By persistent atten- 
tion at opportune moments young Royle acquired considerable skill 
in the use of the machine; he also became thoroughly familiar with 
its construction and indelibly impressed with its shortcomings. 

Desiring to learn the pattern-maker's trade, he returned to 
Paterson and engaged as an apprentice at mechanical pattern-mak- 
ing, in which line he developed much proficiency. Several years 
were spent at this work, part of the time with his father, who was 
then conducting a shop of his own — an establishment modest in size 
but known for skillful machine work. The experience thus gained 
laid an excellent foundation of principle and practice for Mr. 
Royle's later work as a designer and builder of high-class machinery. 
At the age of twenty-one he took temporary leave of the machine 
business and entered the employment of Vanderburgh, Wells & 



ERNON ROYLE, inven- e 

and lifelong resident oi . ..:, - ., _, ,. was 

born June 9, 1 846, the eldest son of the late John Royle, Senior, who 

was long identified with the machinists' trade in Pat "''^^ 

senior Mr. Royle was English by birth, while Ve 
mother was a native of Scotland. 

Mr. Royle's boyhood included several years' attendan 

local schools, interspersed with various minor employments. At 

fourteen years of age he became an errand boy in the engravers' 

joining establishment of Mr. Heber Wells, of New York City. 

Here he first. came to know the routing machine, which was in those 

days a crude device in a strictly elemental state of development. 

Important use was made of this machine in the business of Mr. 

Wells, of whom it may be said that he was a pioneer in using this 

'' id of deep'::^"'' • dppressed portions of engravings, there 

-> orher r< ne at that time doing this class of work 

'; '. li e so indispensable. By persistent atten- 

young Royle acquired considerable skill 

r the much;;;;; he also became thoroughly familiar with 

ion and inJi-'ibly impressed with' its shortcomings. 

'^ to iear,: tite pattern-maker's trade, he returned to 

\ ':nffSi!:c:' :r ^n .^rprenrice at mechanical pattern-raak- 

much proficiency. Several years 

V he time with his father, who was 

fi 1 — an establishment modest in size 

b , .- -v vvork. The experience thus gained 

1:1 :dation of principle and practice for Mr. 

Ru};t . designer and builder of high-class mar^""" 

At the -ne he took temporary leave of the 

business ai. : -; '- ,.< 'hft employment of "' ' " 




^'^lyUL.-0-n^^}>^\cr'^^ 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 425 

Company, of New York, makers of wood type and printers' sup- 
plies. Promotion followed, and he was shortly placed in charge of 
a department of the business known as the engravers' routing and 
joining department. This work brought him renewed association, 
in a practical way, with the routing machine. After several years 
with this firm his work with them was brought to an involuntary 
close by an illness which necessitated a year of retirement from 
active business. 

Having recuperated sufficiently to undertake a light occupation, 
Mr. Royle was in 1872 appointed secretai7 to the Board of Edu- 
cation at Paterson, in which capacity he served continuously until 
1879. A thorough revision of the books of record and account, 
thus placing them upon a more systematic and comprehensive basis 
than formerly, was an incident of his work in this department of the 
city. In 1880 he was elected by unanimous vote to the office of 
School Commissioner, and served for two years. While serving as 
secretary, Mr. Royle frequently employed his spare time in making 
various mechanical devices, and among other things, designed sev- 
eral original and very effective machines for making printers' cases 
and other like products. These machines are still in use. 

During this time the machine business of Mr. Royle's father 
had continued, though on small and conservative lines, and the 
senior Mr. Royle had associated with himself his son John as a part- 
ner. Vernon Royle's aptitude and liking for mechanics had re- 
mained with him since a boy, and foreseeing in the work that the 
firm was then doing both the need and the opportunity for an ex- 
pansion of the business, he decided to cast in his lot with his father 
and brother, and resigned his secretaryship with the Board of Edu- 
cation to do so. 

His varied experiences had prepared him not only for the 
mechanical part of the work he now undertook, but also for the com- 
mercial side of the venture; it was therefore decided that Vernon 
should assume the business management of the firm that now became 
known as John Royle & Sons. Up to this time the firm had under- 



426 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

taken but little original work, depending mainly upon repair jobs 
and the building of one or two specialties that had but a limited sale. 
Ihe accession of Vernon Royle marked important changes in the 
policy and activities of the establishment. He had conceived the 
idea of a departure from the ordinary machinist's jobbing shop, in 
favor of building new appliances and developing certain lines of 
machinery already partly undertaken, but capable of improvements 
that would lessen labor and cheapen production. Incidentally, this 
plan would afford him opportunity for working out certain ideas of 
his own in connection with machines in which he was especially inter- 
ested. Preparation being logically the first step, the resources of 
the firm were taxed to provide new equipment of the latest and most 
efficient machine tools; new processes and systems were established; 
and the entire shop undenvent a reorganization to place it upon an 
aggressive manufacturing basis. 

The first machine to become the object of Mr. Royle's special 
attention was the router, the deficiencies of which he well knew by 
experience. Nor was this machine new to the Royle shop, for many 
years previous his father had built routers for Darius Wells, of 
Paterson, which were used in the cutting of wood t}'pe; and had 
also built several for Vanderburgh, Wells & Company, some of 
them according to improved designs made by Vernon Royle while 
in charge of their routing and joining department. Up to this time 
the routing machine had been built upon a wooden frame, and the 
block to be routed rested upon a wooden table. The machine lacked 
most of the present conveniences and adjustments, the construction 
of the running parts was faulty, and it was not practicable to run 
the machine faster than a few thousand turns of the spindle a 
minute without danger of heating. As the call for it was rare no 
great pains had ever been taken to perfect the machine beyond the 
point of ordinan' usefulness, and though crude and slow, it had 
seemed to answer pretty well for the work expected of it. Vernon 
Royle's association with New York engravers, among whom may 
be mentioned Moss, the father of photo-engraving, had convinced 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 427 

him that there was a future for the router, and he now set to work 
to briny out its latent possibilities. Every part was carefully studied, 
experimented upon, and boldly redesigned; weak points were 
strengthened; refinements in the mechanism introduced by which 
the speed could be greatly increased; until, when the great need for 
the routing machine finally came with the adv^ance of photo-engrav- 
ing, the Royle router stood ready and waiting, fully equal to the 
demands made upon its efficiency. 

The earliest routers were of the radial arm type, which prin- 
ciple is still retained and has never been excelled. Closely follow- 
ing these came the straight line router, which was also developed by 
Mr. Royle personally, and became very popular for the slotting of 
engravers' bolted blocks and other work that required routing in 
mechanically straight lines. It is noteworthy that, notwithstanding 
modifications in detail, the foremost routers now built embody the 
same fundamental principles upon which Mr. Royle's first routers 
were made. 

The present routing machine business of John Royle & Sons 
embraces seven distinct styles for ordinary flat routing, a convertible 
machine for both ordinary flat plates and curved plates for web 
presses, a router for wallpaper cylinders and textile embossing rolls, 
several types for the use of die-sinkers, and routers especially 
adapted to the linoleum industry. All of these have been developed 
through the inventive efforts of Mr. Royle, and many of them are 
protected by American and foreign patents. From a modest begin- 
ning, the Royle router is now as commonly found among the engrav- 
ing and newspaper plants of London, Paris, and Berlin as of New 
York. It hums its way through copper, zinc, and brass at the rate 
of fifteen to twenty thousand revolutions a minute, and in all civil- 
ized countries it is acknowledged to be the standard routing machine 
of the world. 

Indispensable to the routing machine are reliable routing cut- 
ters, and their production satisfactorily yet cheaply has been a pro- 
gressive study with Mr. Royle during all his experience with the 



428 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

router. In the early days the operator of a routing machine took, a 
rod of steel and filed and fashioned it into what he considered a 
good cutter, then heated it in the open fire for hardening and tem- 
pering. At first cutters were required only for wood. Thanks to 
the same persevering skill that solved the problems of the routing 
machine, these tools are now manufactured in commercial quantities, 
by automatic machinery, and are available in various standard forms 
and sizes for use in wood, zinc, brass, and copper. So perfectly does 
the factory-made cutter satisfy all the requirements of router users 
that it has long since entirely superseded the hand-made cutter of 
former days. 

Following his early work on the router, Mr. Royle's connec- 
tion with the photo-engraving interests led him to devise a number 
of other machines for this trade, notably the beveler and the lining 
beveler. Both of these were designed to replace certain laborious 
hand work on half-tone engravings. The former provides rapid 
means for cutting a bevel or rabbet for blocking nails around the 
edges of rectangular engravings; the latter is an elaboration of the 
former which incorporates into practically the same operation the 
lining of plates to show simple or varied border effects. A high- 
speed rotary disk set with appropriate cutters does the beveling, 
while the lining is done by manipulating an ingenious arrangement 
of lances and gravers. These machines have received universal 
recognition. They are entirely original with Mr. Royle, who holds 
patents covering them. 

Numerous other machines and tools would each make an inter- 
esting chapter in a detailed account of Mr. Royle's work for the 
photo-engraver. The rotary edgers, for trimming and squaring the 
edges of blocks, are machines of unusual effectiveness, representing 
careful thought and exceptionally fine machine work. Several 
varieties of shoot-boards and planes furnish economical means of 
trimming and beveling the edges of engravings by hand. A massive 
rotary planer for surfacing blocks and boards to type-high, which is 
admittedly the most reliable planer for engravers' blocking material 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 429 

ever made, is in use by leading engraving houses; though heavily 
built in all its parts, the micrometer gauge which governs the thick- 
ness of the finished work will adjust with absolute accuracy to frac- 
tional parts of one thousandth of an inch. Circular and jig saws 
possessing remarkable accuracy ami refinement, light drill presses, a 
hand lining machine, and a device for squaring engravers' plates 
and negatives to the subject and register-squaring multicolor plates, 
all bear the marks of Mr. Royle's genius. Each is an appreciable 
factor in simplifying and cheapening the production of photo- 
engravings. 

The great silk industry' of Paterson likewise furnished an ample 
field for the exercise of mechanical aptitude in the bettering and 
cheapening of manufacturing processes. Mr. Royle early became 
interested in the weaving of figured goods by the ingenious process 
of Jacquard, in which the design is controlled on the loom by a 
series of perforated cards, the perforations being cut in accordance 
with the design to be woven. To cut these cards speedily and 
exactly is an operation requiring the most accurate machinery. His 
first notable success in this line was the piano machine, undertaken 
w'hile at work on the improvements to the router. In common with 
some of the routers and other machines brought out during the early 
history of the firm, this machine was not patented. It is a machine 
by which the cards composing the original series or pack for a 
design are perforated, and it gets its name from a fancied resem- 
blance between the way it is operated and the playing of a piano. 
Key-controlled punches are manipulated by the fingers of the oper- 
ator, and then forced through the cardboard, one complete row at a 
time, by a heavy pedal stroke. The Royle piano machine quickly 
found favor, and still remains an indispensable machine for cutting 
Jacquard cards. 

Until the early '80s no very efficient plan had been found for 
the duplication of packs of Jacquard cards, antl it was common 
practice to cut each pack on the piano machine, precisely the same 
as the original pack w as cut. As each loom working on goods of a 



430 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

certain pattern requires its own complete pack of cards, the dupli- 
cation of packs in this manner was a long and expensive operation. 
It now became Mr. Royle's ambition to eliminate this laborious 
method of repetition. The plan decided upon is a process of rapid 
duplication from the original pack, and the culmination of his efforts 
is a wonderful piece of intricate mechanism known throughout the 
textile industry as the Royle automatic repeater. Briefly stated, 
this remarkable machine takes a pack of perforated cards, hundreds 
or thousands it may be, all laced together, and performs the feat of 
duplicating upon a pack of blank laced cards all the details of the 
pattern pack, card for card and hole for hole. All this is done with- 
out a slip or an error, absolutely automatically. The selecting sec- 
tion of the machine actually "feels" of each pattern card, determines 
which of its hundreds of punches shall operate, and then, at a single 
stroke, cuts the card completely, an exact duplicate of its pattern, 
all at the rate of fifty or more finished cards a minute. The Royle 
repeater is the sole machine of its kind made in the United States. 
In economic importance to the textile trade it is undoubtedly the 
greatest labor saving invention since the introduction of the Jac- 
quard system of weaving. Mr. Royle's original patent on the re- 
peater, dated 1884, has been followed by others covering subse- 
quent developments of the machine. 

The Royle automatic lock-stitch lacer is a machine which for 
ingenuity and economy is of prime importance. It was introduced 
by Mr. Royle about the year 1893, and the first patent was granted 
in 1896. Previous to its adoption the necessary lacing together 
chainwise of the Jacquard cards composing a pack had usually been 
done by hand, though the operation was expensive and the work 
mediocre. Before lacing, the holes for laces and guide pegs were 
cut on the piano machine. The automatic lacer is a machine con- 
sisting of a feeding section, a punching section, and a lacing section. 
A pile of blank cards having been placed in the machine, they are 
advanced, one by one, from the bottom of the pile to a punching 
press where all the peg and lace holes are punched at a single 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 431 

stroke; thence upon a step-by-step moving chain to the lacing section 
where they are sewed tightly and evenly together; and finally de- 
livered in a systematic stack upon a hand truck placed to receive 
them. To care for the machine is but the work of a boy. Cards 
are thus punched and laced at the rate of thirty or upward a mmute, 
all ready to be placed on the repeater. Two other forms of lacer 
were also brought out, the automatic loop-stitch lacer and the hand- 
feed lacer. 

In 1896 application was made for the first of a series of four 
patents granted to Mr. Royle covering the power driven piano 
machine, the development of which was more than usually beset 
with most baffling problems. The persevering attention of more 
than six years was required to surmount the obstacles involved and 
bring this machine to successful completion. Though its work is 
the same as that produced by the earlier piano machine, the stroke 
of which is made by foot power, the particular value of the power 
driven machine lies in the saving of time and elimination of physical 
strain on a class of work that requires close attention and skillful, 
well paid labor. Efforts in the same direction had been made by 
others, but the Royle power piano machine was the only successful 
solution of the matter and is still the sole machine of its kind. 

Various other machines and devices in the textile line owe their 
inception to Mr. Royle. Among these are a popular hand lacing 
frame for Jacquard cards; several forms of dobbics, patented in 
1884 and 1889; a silk warper, patented in 1887; and a quiller, 
patented in 1888, which was the first grosgrain quiller to meet gen- 
eral recognition in this country. 

While engaged with some of the work already mentioned Mr. 
Royle undertook the de\elopment of still another class of machin- 
ery with which his name is now inseparably associated; namely, 
machines for producing seamless rubber tubing, and machines of 
somewhat similar construction for insulating electric wire. These 
machines operate on the principle of the Archimedean screw, which 
forces plastic rubber compound through a cylindrical passage, and 



432 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

thence through a die of such shape that the compound is molded 
to the form and size desired. 

While a beginning had already been made with the tubing 
machine, it was then in a most imperfect state — rough, ill-propor- 
tioned, slow, and but little understood. The prevailing practice was 
still to make tubing by hand. In 1881 Mr. Royle brought out his 
first tubing machine. Though this style is now almost entirely super- 
seded by his later types, the machine of 188 1 was so strikingly 
superior in all the elements that make for increased output and 
range that it was at once accepted by rubber manufacturers. This 
was the beginning of a series of twelve patents on machines of this 
character, embracing one hundred claims. Subsequent study and 
experiment on the part of Mr. Royle have brought about numerous 
improvements over the features of his earliest tubing machine and a 
general refining throughout, thus increasing its efficiency and extend- 
ing its range of capacity. Royle tubing machines are now used in 
scores of factories, at home and abroad, producing soft and hard 
rubber tubing and solid rods for all purposes, hose and tire linings, 
vehicle tires, and tubular stock for fruit-jar rings, washers, rubber 
bands, fountain pen tubes, and an endless variety of manufactured 
articles. Equally important use of the tubing machine is also made 
in the manufacture of various articles in celluloid. These machines 
in large sizes are now adapted to the straining of impurities from 
reclaimed rubber. 

Previous to the introduction of the Royle insulating machine 
electric wire was insulated by the strip method, a process by which 
the wire is enveloped in a continuous strip of compound having a 
cemented seam along its entire length. Of vast and far-reaching 
importance was the advent of a machine which by a simpler and 
more economical method would apply an absolutely seamless, con- 
tinuous covering of the same material at one operation. The de- 
mand for insulated wire has grown enormously in the past few 
years, owing to the widespread use of electricity for almost every 
conceivable purpose; but the Royle insulating machine has proved 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 433 

equal to the occasion, both in the range of sizes that it will accom- 
modate and the rapidity with which it does its work. Ten miles of 
covered wire in a day is not an unusual output for one of these 
machines. Valuable service is also rendered by the insulating 
machine in applying successive layers of rubber in the manufacture 
of steam gasket packing and seamless garden hose. A recent adap- 
tation is for insulating ponderous electric cables; this work requir- 
ing larger sizes of the machine than were even thought of when 
the first insulating machines were built. 

It is a deserving tribute to Mr. Royle's careful forethought 
that the principles he introduced into tubing and insulating machine 
construction thirty years ago still remain the most advanced ideas on 
the subject to-day. 

It will be seen that Mr. Royle's influence as an inventor and 
manufacturer has been mainly in the interests of four lines of indus- 
try'; namely, photo-engraving, Jacquard card cutting, rubber tubing, 
and the insulating of electric wire. To the progress of each he has 
effectively ministered by contributing a series of labor-saving 
machines that have aided materially in facilitating production and 
reducing the cost of manufacture. In none of this work has he ever 
been a copyist; he began by striking out boldly along original lines, 
and in all of his work has remained faithful to this course. 

When Vernon Royle was doing his initial work on the routing 
machine the business of photo-engraving was just being developed, 
yet so completely were the future needs of the business foreseen and 
provided for that the photo-engraver never knew any concern about 
the tools for his mechanical operations — Mr. Royle has already 
provided them. 

From the high standing of Royle machines for the various 
operations upon the Jacquard card it is evident that the same careful 
analysis of future requirements was brought to bear on the problems 
involved. The little competition that has occasionally sprung up in 
machines for producing these cards has been but short lived in the 
face of the incontestable superiority of the Royle productions. 

NC-28 



434 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

The Royle tubing and insulating machines were hkewise de- 
veloped largely in advance of the trade requirements, and even yet 
the possibilities of these machines for high speed production are 
not fully utilized. So highly efficient are they as compared to the 
earlier methods of doing such work that the spectacle is often pre- 
sented of a tubing or an insulating machine delivering its product 
faster than the crude take-off facilities sometimes used can receive it. 

In addition to his strictly original work, credit is due Mr. Royle 
for having developed to a state of commercial usefulness a number 
of machines initially undertaken and patented by other inventors. 
Several of these, in their present improved state, are now built under 
royalty at the Royle works. Those most notable are the Tynan 
Spinner, for silk; the Lee-Royle Selector, an adjunct of the auto- 
matic repeater that may eventually eliminate the work of the piano 
machine and thus save what is now the most costly operation in pre- 
paring Jacquard cards; the Moniot-Royle Hand Repeater, for dup- 
licating worn or broken cards; and the de Laski-Royle Circular 
Loom, upon which the fabric jackets are woven for the great bulk 
of the rubber-lined fire hose now used. For the past several years 
Mr. Royle has been devoting much of his time to perfecting a new 
circular loom, designed on lines original with himself and embody- 
ing several new principles in the weaving of circular fabrics. The 
hose fabric woven on this loom has already proved to be of vastly 
superior quality because of its unequalled tightness and uniformity 
of texture. Patents covering the new features of construction have 
been allowed, and the machine now promises to assume an important 
place in the hose industry. 

One of Mr. Royle's most recent inventions, undertaken in 
cooperation with his son, Vernon E. Royle, is an automatic machine 
for the hardening and tempering of small tools by the aid of the 
electric current. This invention is intended to remove these pro- 
cesses from dependence upon fallible human inspection and place 
them upon a basis of scientific exactness. 

Official recognition of his work has been made by the grant- 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 435 

ing to Mr. Royle of nearly one hundred patents by the United 
States and European governments. Tribute of an unofficial char- 
acter has come in various ways, among which are the common prac- 
tices of some competing manufacturers, especially in certain Euro- 
pean countries, who frequently announce their wares as "built on 
the Royle system," or "an accurate copy of the famous Royle." 

Not the least accomplishment of Mr. Royle's busy career has 
been the active personal management of the business of John Royle 
^ Sons ever since 1879. At that time the firm occupied only a small 
rented shop on Water street. This, however, soon proved inade- 
quate because of their rapidly developing trade in the routing 
machine and other specialties they had undertaken to build. After 
two successive moves to larger quarters, a modern four-story brick 
building of their own was commenced in 1888, at the corner of 
Straight and Essex streets. In 1892 an adjoining four-story build- 
ing was erected, and in 1898, the year of the firm's incorporation, a 
five-story factory and office building was added. The rapid growth 
thus substantially indicated has unquestionably been due to the inven- 
tive work and ceaseless energy of Vernon Royle. Under his direc- 
tion the business has expanded until now not only the home trade 
but that of Great Britain and the Continent, South America, Aus- 
tralia, Japan, and the Orient has been secured. A fixed principle at 
the Royle works is, "Perfect work regardless of competition." Slip- 
shod work is never tolerated. A rigid adherence to such a worthy 
motto has been the means of retaining trade confidence, and, inci- 
dentally, it has proved a silent but effective way to defeat the com- 
petition of infringing manufacturers. Notwithstanding the present 
magnitude of the business, Mr. Royle continues intimately in touch 
with its details and personally directs the affairs of the firm. 

I hough his life thus far has been one of unusually close applica- 
tion to business and mechanical interests, Mr. Royle has for many 
years been known, more than locally, as an expert amateur photog- 
rapher. Some of his work has appeared in the best photographic 
journals and exhibits. While a boy he became deeply interested in 



436 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the art, and his devotion to it was rewarded with marked success. 
This would not be a notable accomplishment with the present auto^ 
matic methods of picture making, but it should be remembered that 
Vernon Royle's early work with the camera was in the old days of 
wet plates when nothing was automatic — when the amateur groped 
his own way to an understanding of photographic principles, devised 
his own paraphernalia, sensitized his plates in an improvised port- 
able dark-tent the moment before exposure and developed them 
Immediately after in solutions diluted with water from the nearest 
brook — such were the methods of pioneer outdoor photography. 
In the years that have followed, photography has remained Mr. 
Royle's principal diversion. 

As a citizen of Paterson, Mr. Royle takes an active interest in 
its municipal affairs. Though his services as a public official termi- 
nated with his retirement from the Board of School Commissioners 
in 1882, he is a member of Paterson's most aggressive non-official 
civic body, the Taxpayers' Association, in which he is one of a com- 
mittee who have made an exhaustive study of the sewage disposal 
problem and contributed a volume of invaluable data on the subject 
for the benefit of Paterson and other communities in the Passaic 
Valley. In addition to his office as president and treasurer of John 
Royle & Sons, he is a director of the Hamilton Trust Company, of 
Paterson; a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engi- 
neers; the Masonic fraternity; the Hamilton Club, and the New 
Jersey Historical Society. 

He was married in 1872, and has two sons, Heber and Vernon 
E., both of whom are associated with him in business. 



JOHN WEBLEY SLOCUM 



JOHN WEBLEY SLOCUM, one of the representative mem- 
bers of the legal fraternity, practicing his profession in Long 
Branch, New Jersey, eldest son of the late Edward R. and Mary J. 
Slociim, is a lineal descendant of an old and honored New Jersey 
family, his ancestor, John Slocum, having been one of the associate 
patentees of Monmouth county, his name appearing in the old 
records, May, 1668, and from that time to the present the members 
of the family have borne well their part in the progress and welfare 
of the State. 

John W. Slocum was born at Long Branch, New Jersey, April 
23, 1867, and has always made that city his home. Immediately 
after his graduation from the Long Branch High School, in 1884, he 
began the study of law with ex-Judge Wilbur A. Heisley, a noted 
attorney, and after a competitive examination at Trenton was ad- 
mitted to the bar of New Jersey as an attorney in June, 1888, and 
as a counsellor-at-law four years later. His practice has been along 
general lines, increasing in volume and importance with the passing 
years, and he has gained an enviable reputation. Chancellor Wil- 
liam J. Magie appointed him a Special Master in Chancery on the 
recommendation of the late Henry Stafford Little, and he performed 
the duties of the office in a highly acceptable manner. He also 
served as City Solicitor of Long Branch for eight years, and was 
elected, on the Democratic ticket. Senator from Monmouth county, 
in November, 191 1, serving in that capacity at the present time to 
the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Mr. Sloaim is president 
of the "Long Branch Daily Record," president of the Long Branch 
Sewer Company, president of the Independent Fire Company, 
director and counsel of the Hollywood Land Company, and trustee 
of the Monmouth Bar Association. He holds membership in the 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 



438 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Mr. Slocum married, December 23, 1891, Ada, only daughter 
of Richard V. and Sarah E. Breece, at Long Branch. He and his 
wife are members of the Episcopal church. 



ROBERT DODD MEAD 



THE Mead family, worthily represented in the present genera- 
tion by Robert Dodd Mead, of Newark, an active factor in 
banking circles in that city, is one whose members have attained posi- 
tions of eminence along the line of literature and in time of war. The 
family originated in England, going thence to Holland, and to the 
New World in 1690, the branch of which Mr. Mead is a descendant, 
then settling in New York City, afterwards removing to Pompton 
Plains, New Jersey. The line of descent from Peter Mead, who 
died in 1 697, to the present representative, is as follows : John, Jacob, 
Henry, Jacob; Theodore, father of Robert D. Mead, who married 
Johanna Mary Dodd, of Newark. 

Robert D. Mead was born in Newark, May 19, 185 1. He 
received a public school education in his native city, and upon the com- 
pletion of his studies he devoted his attention to the dry goods com- 
mission business, in which he was employed for a number of years. 
In 1876 he entered the employ of the Howard Savings Institution, 
of which he is now the secretary, gaining his present responsible 
position in 1903. He is a member of the Roseville Presbyterian 
Church, the Roseville Athletic Association, and in politics is an Inde- 
pendent. 

Mr. Mead married, December 26, 1877, Anna Dow, daughter 
of Robert J. and Anna D. (Joralemon) Baldwin. They have one 
son, Edgar B., who married Adeline, daughter of Henry P. and 
Gertrude Mabille. 



EDWIN AUGUSTUS STEVENS 



EDWIN AUGUSTUS STEVENS, at present in office as Com- 
missioner of Highways of the State of New Jersey, is a de- 
scendant of a distinguished colonial family of the State of New 
Jersey who during the last two centuries have been liberally repre- 
sented in public office in the country. Ihey are allied by marriage 
with all the oldest families in and around New York City, and have 
been at the head of all financial and business matters for many years. 
The advance in ship building and railroad construction work is 
largely owing to the progressive and novel ideas which have ema- 
nated from the brains of the various members of this family. 

Robert L. Stevens, the uncle, and Edwin Augustus Stevens Sr., 
the father of the man whose name heads this sketch, were among 
the great inventors of this country, and the field their inventions 
covered was wide, diversified and of incalculable worth. They cov- 
ered means of traffic and transportation by land and on water, 
ammunition, and the means of sending it off in the most destructive 
manner. Edwin Stevens constructed the first iron-clad vessel. He 
was the founder of the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, 
and this has been upheld by his family. He married (first) Mary, 
daughter of Rev. Thomas Picton, chaplain, U. S. A.; (second) 
Martha Bayard, daughter of Rev. Albert Baldwin Dod, D. D., and 
Caroline Bayard, of Princeton. 

Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr. was born in Philadelphia, March 
14, 1858. His preparatory education was received at St. Paul's 
School, Concord, New Hampshire, after which he matriculated at 
Princeton University, from which he was graduated in the class of 
1879. He commenced reading law with Robert Gilchrist, of Jersey 
City, New Jersey, but, following the natural bent of his inherited 
genius, he turned his attention to mechanical and marine engineer- 
ing. In this line of endeavor he was as successful as his immediate 



440 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

predecessor. He was the first to substitute the screw propeller for 
the cumbersome paddle-wheel in the ferry boats on the Hudson, and 
the "Bergen" was built in accordance with his plans and specifications 
and under his personal supervision. For many years he has lived 
at the family residence at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, and 
for many years has been president of the Hoboken Land & Improve- 
ment Company, the business interests of the family resting mainly 
in his hands. He was also president of the Hoboken Ferry Com- 
pany, which was one of the family properties from 1784 until 1896, 
when they sold it. 

The public offices held by Mr. Stevens have been numerous. 
He has served as Park Commissioner of Hudson county; Tax Com- 
missioner for the city of Hoboken; Commissioner for the Adjust- 
ment of Arrears in Taxation for Hoboken; and is now Highway 
Commissioner for the State of New Jersey. Some years ago, when 
the boundary' line between New York and New Jersey was finally 
determined, he was a member of the commission which revised and 
completed the work done by the commission of 1774, of which his 
great-grandfather had been a member. He served as alternate 
commissioner to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. 
State and Federal politics have engaged his attention for many 
years, and he was one of the organizers of the Democratic Society 
of New Jersey, and served as its president, and has been a member 
of the Democratic State Committee. He was a candidate for the 
office of Presidential Elector in 1888, 1892 and 1904. Among the 
other official positions held by Colonel Stevens are the following: 
President of the New Jersey Ice Company, treasurer of the Hack- 
ensack Water Company, director of the First National Bank of 
Hoboken and of the Hudson Trust & Savings Institution, and trus- 
tee of the Stevens Institute. He served on the military staffs of 
Governors Ludlow, Abbett and Ludlow, 1880 to 1883, and 1883 
to 1892, as colonel of the Second Regiment, New Jersey Militia; 
he was also for a time adjutant of the Ninth New Jersey Militia. 

Colonel Stevens is a consistent Anglican Catholic, as have been 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 441 

all the members of his family, and he has been active in the paro- 
chial, diocesan and national affairs of the Protestant Episcopal 
church. The Church of the Holy Innocents was established and 
built in Hoboken as a memorial to his sister Julia, by her mother, 
and Colonel Stevens and his brother Richard are trustees of that 
institution. Eor many years he has been a member of the standing 
committee of the Diocese of Newark, is secretary of its board of 
trustees of its Episcopal fund, and is treasurer of the diocese. He 
was one of the lay deputies from the Diocese of Newark to the 
General Conventions of the church held in San Francisco in 1901; 
Boston, 1904; Richmond, Virginia, 1907; and Cincinnati, 1910. 
Among other organizations of various kinds with which he is asso- 
ciated are the following: Trustee of the Washington Headquarters 
Association of New Jersey; and member of the Builders' and Under- 
writers' Association, Lawyers' Club of New York, University Club 
of New York, German Club of Hoboken, Columbia Club of Ho- 
boken, Atlantic Boat Club, the Society of Naval Architects and 
Marine Engineers, and the American Society of Mechanical Engi- 
neers. 

Colonel Stevens married, in Berryville, Virginia, October 28, 
1879, Emily Contee, daughter of George Washington and Emily 
(Johnson) Lewis, and granddaughter of the Hon. Reverdy John- 
son. She was also the granddaughter of Lorenzo and Esther 
(Coxe) Lewis, and the great-granddaughter of Colonel John Coxe, 
of Bloomsbury, who was the great-grandfather of Colonel Stevens, 
himself. Mrs. Stevens was the great-granddaughter of Lawrence 
and Eleanor Parke (Custis) Lewis, and the great-great-grand- 
daughter of Colonel Fielding and Betty (Washington) Lewis, the 
latter being a daughter of Colonel John Washington. Children: i. 
John, born January 28, 1881. 2. Edwin Augustus, born August 
15, 1882. 3. Washington Lewis, born September 26, 1883; mar- 
ried, October 28, 1905, Nannie, eldest child of Philip Nye Jackson 
and Margaret (Atlee) Jackson. 4. Bayard, born July 20, 1885. 5. 
Martha Bayard, born December 9, 1886, died April 12, 1888. 6. 



442 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Basil, born December 28, 1888. 7. Lawrence Lewis, born Novem- 
ber 29, 1889. 8. Emily Lewis, born June 12, 1896. 



PORTER SPAULDING KINNE, M. D. 



THERE are few men more devoted to their profession than Dr. 
Porter Spaulding Kinne, of Paterson, New Jersey. He was 
born in 1849, o" ^ farm near the village of Dewitt, Onondaga 
county. New York, the son of Mason Prentiss and Mary Jane 
Kinne, of Onondaga county. He was educated in the district schools 
of his native State, which was supplemented by a course at the Caz- 
enovia Seminary. He studied medicine and graduated as M. D. 
from the New York Homoeopathic College in 1872. 

He settled at Paterson after completing his medical studies, 
where he has continued to practice his profession during the last 
forty-one years. He is a member of the Church of the Redeemer, 
Presbyterian, of Paterson, New Jersey; and of Ivanhoe Lodge, 
Free and Accepted Masons; also of Melitia Commandery, No. 13, 
Knights Templar, of Paterson. In addition, he is a member of the 
North Jersey Country Club, and is devoted to outdoor sports and to 
golf. He is also a member of the American Institute of HomcEO- 
pathy, the New Jersey State Homoeopathic Society, and a member 
of the board of governors of St. Mary's Hospital, Passaic, New 
Jersey. 

He married Amelia B. Smylie, daughter of James M. and Mar- 
garetta O. Smylie, in 1873, at Paterson. They had as issue three 
children, namely: i. Ansel Smylie Kinne, born in 1874, died in 
1874, at Paterson. 2. Fred Mason Kinne, born in 1876, died in 
1896, at Princeton College. 3. James Smylie Kinne, born in 1879, 
at Paterson, New Jersey, who still resides in his native city; he mar- 
ried Miss Helen Baldwin, of Middletown, Connecticut, April 19, 
191 1 ; they have a daughter, Marjorie, born January 12, 1912. 




^-^^^CT^^e^^^:^ 



GRIFFITH WALKER LEWIS 



AS one of the prominent and representative citizens of Burling- 
ton, New Jersey, who for many years has been identified 
with the manufacturing and other interests of Burlington county, it 
is particularly appropriate that Griffith Walker Lewis, of Burling- 
ton, should be accorded extended mention in this work. The Lewis 
family is of Welsh origin, the immigrant ancestor in this country 
having come from that country and settled in Bucks county, Penn- 
sylvania. His son Ephraim was a volunteer soldier during the War 
of 1812. 

Griffith Walker Lewis Sr. was born in Hatboro, Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, 1837, and died in Burlington, New Jersey, 1901. 
He was the pioneer of this family in the State of New Jersey. In 
his early youth he went to Philadelphia, where he obtained work in 
the shoe industry, and was identified with the manufacture of shoes 
throughout his life. When he removed to Burlington he established 
a shoe factory on his own account, and so successful was he in this 
enterprise, that he finally built the present fine factory in Burlington. 
Many other business enterprises claimed a share of his time and 
attention, and in a number of them he held official position. He 
married Anna Maria Kimble, who is a member of the Kimble family 
which intermarried with the family of which ex-Governor Stokes is 
a member. 

Griffith Walker Lewis, whose name heads this narrative, was 
born in Burlington, New Jersey, July i, 1862. His education was a 
sound and practical one, and was obtained at the country schools 
near Jacksonville, Burlington county. New Jersey, and at the Bur- 
lington Military College. Upon the completion of his education he 
at once became actively identified with the work which had been 
so successfully prosecuted by his father. He spent a considerable 
period of time in each department of the vast enterprise, in this 



444 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

manner becoming practically and thoroughly acquainted with the 
business in every detail. Some years were then spent on the road in 
the selling of the factory output, and so thorough was the knowl- 
edge he had acquired, that he was able to take charge of the busi- 
ness prior to the death of his father, and when that sad event 
occurred, assumed full charge. This control he has maintained up 
to the present time, and the relations existing between him and the 
large number of men in his employ are of the most friendly character. 
He has a stern sense of justice, and, while he exacts strict obedience 
of the rules which of necessity must exist in so large a concern, he is 
ever ready with kind words and more practical help when sickness 
or sorrow comes to those in his employ. Financial and other busi- 
ness activities have also engaged a large share of the time and atten- 
tion of Mr. Lewis, and he appears to be one of that class of men 
who, the more they have to do, the more time they find in which to 
do it. He succeeded his father as vice-president of the Electric 
Light & Power Company of Burlington, and was later elected to the 
presidency of that corporation; director of the Public Library Asso- 
ciation, and of the City of Burlington Building & Loan Association; 
vice-president of the Mount Holly Fair Association; a director and 
one of the incorporators of the Burlington City Loan & Trust Com- 
pany; director and vice-president of the Mechanics' National Bank 
of Burlington for a period of eight years, and was elected to the 
presidency of that institution in 1908; a director of the Burlington 
Savings Institution and elected president of that institution April, 

1913- 

In political matters Mr. Lewis has always been a staunch Re- 
publican, and his ability in this direction has been as beneficial to 
the city along this line as it has been in the business world. During 
the six years he was a member of the City Council, he served as 
chairman of the finance committee two years, and as president of 
the council one year. He is a member of the Burlington County 
Republican Executive Committee, and was elected to the House of 
Representatives of New Jersey in 1906, being reelected in 1907-08; 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 445 

in the 1909 session he was the floor leader for the majority, and 
chairman of the judiciary committee. In the fall of 1909 he was 
elected member of New Jersey Senate for a full term of three years, 
from his home county. 

His fraternal connections are as follows: Past master of Bur- 
lington Lodge, No. 32, Free and Accepted Masons; Boudinot Chap- 
ter, No. 3, Royal Arch Masons; Helena Commandery, No. 3, 
Knights Templar; Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic 
Shrine, Philadelphia; Camden Consistory, Scottish Rite; Burling- 
ton Lodge, No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Hope 
Lodge, No. 13, Knights of Pythias; past exalted ruler of Mount 
Holly Lodge, No. 848, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 
His religious belief is that of the Presbyterian denomination. 

Mr. Lewis married, June 27, 1893, Mary R., daughter of Wil- 
liam Watson and Rhoda (P'alkinburg) Fenton, of Jacksonville, 
Burlington county, New Jersey. Children: i. Howard Fenton, 
born in Burlington, New Jersey, April 17, 1894; was graduated 
from the Haines Preparatory School in Burlington, after which he 
became a sUident at the Trenton State Model School; after graduat- 
ing from the State Model School he became and is a student of 
Rider-Moore Business College, of Trenton, New Jersey. 2. Helen 
Burr, born October 25, 1898; was graduated from the Haines 
Preparatory School in Burlington, after which she also became and 
is a student at the Trenton State Model School. 



CURTIS R. BURNETT 



ONE of Newark's most progressive and public-spirited citizens, 
Curtis R. Burnett may justly be credited with a large share 
of those activities which have within recent years placed Newark 
in the forefront of American industrial centers. Himself a typical 
exair.ple of affairs of the utmost importance, he has ever been ready 
to undertake another burden if by so doing he might by deed or 
example benefit or further any movement pointing towards the 
betterment of industrial or municipal conditions. 

Curtis R. Burnett, born October 5, 1870, In Newark, the town 
to which he has given the activities of a lifetime, is the son of John 
R. and Caroline A. (Hutson) Burnett. Both his parents were of 
excellent American stock, his father being a native of Essex county. 
New Jersey, and his mother's family having been residents of New- 
ark. John R. Burnett had held a position of responsibility in the 
postofiice during the period of the Civil War, later becoming en- 
gaged with the Morris Canal & Banking Company. In this position 
he continued until It was taken over by the Lehigh Valley Railroad 
Company. He then entered Into the retail coal business at 198 
Washington street and Morris Canal. His experience as a coal 
shipper and merchant was now extensive, and a distinct trend 
towards constructive work led him about this time into becoming 
one of the organizers of the New Jersey Coal Exchange which was 
now formed. In this corporation he held the position of secretary, 
remaining here until his death, February 21, 1890. He had three 
years previously given up his own coal business. For a time after he 
had severed his connection with the postoffice, Mr. Burnett had served 
as assistant city clerk. He was a charter member of the Belleville 
Avenue Congregational Church, which also he served for a number 
of years as treasurer. In political convictions he was in later life 
a Republican, having come over from the Democratic camp in the 



BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 447 

dark, and stormy period of civil strife. He was a member of Corin- 
thian Council, Royal Arcanum. 

As a son of this influential and useful citizen, Curtis R. Bur- 
nett came by association early into the atmosphere of affairs and 
strenuous activity in various lines. He was sent to the public schools 
of his native town, and there maintained an excellent grade of 
scholarship. It was alter some work at a private school that he went 
to the Burnet Street Grammar School, later pursuing a commercial 
course in the High School and completing his academic studies in 
1887, when he was not yet seventeen years old. A few months later 
he became associated with the Standard Oil Company in its Newark 
branch, starting in quite cheerfully with the work of an office boy. 
With this corporation he remained until March, 1895, holding at 
the time of his departure the position of cashier. It was then that 
the American Oil & Supply Company was formed. He decided to 
join them and is now secretary and general manager of the corpora- 
tion. 

Mr. Burnett is a member of a number of organizations which 
play an important part in the civic life of Newark. In 191 1 and 
19 1 2 he served as the president of the Newark Board of Trade, 
and for the term 191 1-1912 he was president of the Newark Asso- 
ciation of Credit Men. He is treasurer of the Essex County Mos- 
quito Extermination Commission, and a trustee of the Newark Free 
Dental Clinic. He is also an appointee of Governor (now Presi- 
dent) Wilson, as a member of the New Jersey Commission for the 
Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915. He also is a 
director in the Rilev Klotz Manufacturing Company. With the con- 
structive imagination of the man of large affairs he saw the immense 
benefit in his native city of the Industrial Exposition held in Newark 
in 1912, and threw himself into its organization with characteristic 
zeal and efficiency, serving as chairman of the executive committee. 

In politics a Republican, he has taken an active and wholesome 
part in municipal affairs. He is of the class of citizens who does 
not think that his civic duty is done when he has cast his vote, but 



448 BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA 

of that smaller and enormously more valuable class who put their 
shoulder to the wheel and help with all the vigor of their manhood 
to bring on the better day. He was elected a member of the Com- 
mon Council in 1904, serving as alderman from the Eighth Ward, 
filling that office four years. During a portion of this time he was 
chairman of the finance committee, which carried with it the Repub- 
lican leadership for about two years on the floor of the Council. 
Mr. Burnett is a member of Northern Lodge, No. 25, Free and 
Accepted Masons, and of Garret A. Hobart Council, Junior Order 
of United American Mechanics. He is a member of the board of 
governors of the Northern Republican Club; vice-president of the 
Down Town Club, of Newark, New Jersey; and also holds member- 
ship in the Union Club. He is a member of the Forest Hill Presby- 
terian Church. 

Mr. Burnett married, in 1905, Sarah, daughter of Harry Sim- 
mons, one of the oldest and most respected residents of Rahway, 
New Jersey. 



_ - MnMtt 



HlB' 



GRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEL: . 



.-. .>.,i. o, ... 1 'normQusly more valuable class who pui w.... 

shoulder to id help with all the vigor of their manhood 

t", bring on iui'. v " He was elected a member of the Com- 

on Council in i "^ ,; as alderman from the Eighth Ward, 

rolling that office tour years. During a portion of this time he was 
chairman of the finance committee, which carried with it the Repub- 
lican leadership for about two years on the floor of the Council. 
Mr. Burnett is a member of Northern Lodge, No. 25, Free and 
Accepted Masons, and of Garret A. Hobart Council, junin,- Order 
of United American Mechanics. He is a member of the board of 
governors of the Northern Republican Club; vice-president of the 
Down Town Club, of Newark, New Jersey ; and also holds member- 
ship in the Union Club. He is a member of the Forest Hill Presby- 
*■-••■ '" rhurch. ' 

-. Burnett married, in 1905, Sarah, daughter of Harry Sim- 




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